Darkness Scoots

Chapters

Where Everypony Knows Your Name
Just a Tiny Set Back
A Glimpse to the Past
Welcome Home
Enter the Demon
A One in a Million Chance
The Road Home
Truth
Shadow
Acceptance
Finality
Prelude

Where Everypony Knows Your Name

~In all the realms of the multiverse, none are so treacherous as that of one's own subconscious mind. There is truth to the old saying that "You are your own worst enemy", even in the best of times.

-An excerpt from the Book of Fillysophical Studies, by: Dr. Rhindquarters

===D.W.===

"A black Pegasus pony with a purple mane and two different colored eyes? AND no Cutie Mark? Nope, can't say I've seen 'em around before."

"Bandaged wings? Oh dear, I hope he's okay."

There was a smattering of murmurs, whispers and overall general confusion as the four mares gathered at the corner wracked their heads. Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy not knowing this pony? That was one thing. But Pinkie Pie too? The mare who claimed to know everypony that lived in Ponyville? Now that was something worth notice and should have been a clue that something was just not right that night.

"Are you absolutely sure about his coloration? I'm sure I'd have seen such a fashion faux-pas wandering around Ponyville if he lives here. Especially one without a Cutie Mark." The white unicorn tossed her luxuriant mane back over her shoulder.

"Just cuz I hit my head doesn't mean I'm dumb or something. I know what I saw." Scootaloo retorted. This was getting them nowhere.

"Maybe...that is, if he's not too busy, you could um...bring him here so we could possibly talk to him?" Fluttershy's meek tone barely made notice.

"Oh! Oh! You totally need to bring him here now! If I haven't met this pony before, I need to throw him a SorryForBeingLateInWelcomingYouToPonyvilleParty!" Pinkie practically bubbled up from next to nowhere between Rarity and Fluttershy, balancing a perfectly made cupcake stack atop the plate on her overly exuberant head.

"Maybe you should just go ask Twilight. She should be home by now; I saw her coach pulling up to the Library on my way over here." Rainbow Dash suggested dismissively, reclining back into one of the booths along the wall.

The girls traded glances between each other. None of the fillies were too keen on going back there after the fiasco earlier. A general sense of unease settled into the pit of Scootaloo's stomach as she politely suggested something to the contrary, not wanting to outright insult Rainbow by being rude; but also not wanting to have to go back and risk incurring Twilight's wrath should she have stumbled across a book out of place. Even Spike was known to slip up sometimes in his alphabetization.

"You're all sure you've never seen him?" Sweetie Belle asked.

One by one, the ponies nodded after looking back and forth between themselves.

"Oh man...I hope Spike's not still angry about the mess..." Scootaloo sighed as she resigned herself to going back to visit Twilight. She threw her helmet on after thanking all of the others, hitching the cart up to her scooter. "All right then, Crusaders. Back to the Library!" She cried out.

===D.W.===

"A hetero-chromatic Pegasus without a Cutie Mark?"

"Hetero...what now?" Scootaloo's head was spinning with questions by the time they returned to the library to see Twilight.

"That's what having eyes that are two different colors is called. It's a condition where the pigments in one eye are different than that of the other. I've heard it causes serious vision problems in some ponies.", the lavender unicorn nodded, seemingly pleased with her description.

"I'll bet that's why he hit you in the head with the door, Scoot. He couldn't see you right." Sweetie Belle chimed in. "Poor pony must have a hard time seeing in the dark."

"How do you miss something as bright an orange as me though?! I mean, really! Even with bad eyesight, that's just lame." Scootaloo huffed, her head still a bit tender from where the door had met it.

Twilight turned around, looking through her books for an example of the condition, just so she could verify that it had indeed been what the girls were talking about when Spike came bounding down the stairs.

"Before you even ask...here. Chapter twelve, page two-hundred thirty-six." He held out a leather bound book, titled 'Modern Medical Ailments: Benefits and Downfalls'. "I overheard you down here talking about it, so I figured you'd ask sooner or later." He grinned widely.

"And that's why you're my Number One Assistant." Twilight commented, opening to the page directed. "Ah, here we go. Is this what you were talking about girls?" She pointed to an image in the book.

All three of them stared at the book for a moment before Apple Bloom looked up to Twilight.

"That pony...tha's him." Apple Bloom nodded. "Tha's the same one that bonked Scootaloo with the door."

Twilight turned the book around to get a better look at the image. Sure enough, there stood a black Pegasus with a deep violet mane, one eye blue, the other gold, bandaged wings and no Cutie Mark. She stared hard at the image for a moment, looking to the caption underneath.

'Depicted here, a research volunteer as seen with typical signs of heterochromia. Suffers blindness thought to be caused by rapid deterioration of optic nerve at a young age due to prolonged condition. Beneficial studies into the subject have found that ponies with this irregular disorder are frequent 'far-seers', having the ability to see the future even without magic. Speculation persists that such ponies may even be able to see more than the future, however this has been deemed an ill-advised belief for such controversy.'

Twilight thought on that, Scootaloo watching her face with a careful scrutiny for any sign that the unicorn might know something. She saw maybe the briefest glimmer of hope when Twilight's eyes lit up with an idea, only to find herself disappointed when the older pony went to the index of the book.

"What are you doing now, Twilight?" The orange filly moaned.

"Referencing the image in the book to its appendices see if we can find out a date on the photograph and or the name of this Pegasus Pony of yours." She scanned the pages slowly, looking up and down as the fillies watched on, locked in place. "Ha! Found it!"

Scootaloo's ears perked up.

"His name is Dream Catcher. Odd though, this photograph was taken many years ago. There's no way he could still look like this." Twilight's brow furrowed. "He'd have to be at least as old as Granny Smith."

"Wow, that's old." Apple Bloom thought aloud, catching herself in the middle of a giggle fit from her friends when she realized she'd just unintentionally insulted her own grandmare. "Oops...You gals didn't hear that."

Twilight chuckled. "I think you're safe, Apple Bloom. Just don't say it to her face. I don't know how she'd take a comment like that. Now, while this has my interest, I've got something else I'm working on that I have to get back to."

"Aww, Come On Twilight! You're our only hope!" Scootaloo's eyes bugged out at her plea.

"I'm sorry girls, but Princess Luna is helping me research something of great importance right now, and I don't want to waste her time. I promise, as soon as I'm done working on this project, I'll help you three out, okay?" Twilight smiled as genuinely as she could.

The fillies all sighed in unison.

"Well...all right. Pinkie Pie Promise?" Scoot asked.

"Cross my heart and hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye." Twilight's grin grew as she went through the motions, careful not to actually poke herself in the eye like she had the first time she'd tried it.

'I guess that's as close as we get for now.' The young Pegasus's mind was floating in a sea of questions now. Who was this mysterious pony? How could he be that old? And why was it that no one had heard of him until they'd found him in a book?

"I think it's time you three went home." Twilight's voice broke Scootaloo out of her thoughts.

Apple Bloom nodded and Sweetie Belle grinned.

"Rarity is at Sugar Cube Corner...so I get to go there instead." The young unicorn's muzzle split ear to ear at the thought of the sweets left over from the day's baking.

"Applejack is probably waitin' fer me too. Ah'll see ya'll tomorrow!" She cried as she ran out the door, Sweetie Belle close behind.

Scootaloo, however, stood rooted to the spot. She wasn't ready to give up. This pony had become the fore-front of her thoughts. After all, pretty much the only thing she could really concentrate on was the sore spot on her forehead from where he'd smacked her. And that's what kept her focused on him. She'd find him and get him back for it, but first...

"Dream Catcher, huh?"

"Scootaloo, I'm serious. You should probably head home. Your parents must be worried sick about you being out this late." The unicorn prodded...only to look up in confusion. "Come to think of it...I've never met your parents, have I?"

Scoot's ears folded back immediately in reaction to the 'P' word, and the bright, warm atmosphere of the library felt like it instantly chilled a few degrees in temperature. Though she didn't quite notice it at first...or know why when she finally did realize it, the filly shook her head straight and brought her attention immediately back to Twilight. Fortunately for her, she noticed, Twilight hadn't seemed to see the seemingly knee-jerk reflex.

"Um...no, I don't think you have. Sorry Twilight, it's been awesome. Gotta Run!" She spit out almost all in one breath as she bounded out the door, launching herself onto the scooter. In a flash, she was off at full speed, racing away from a confused Twilight whom had come to the door to watch her go.

Scootaloo ripped through Ponyville, mane and tail blowing wildly in the ensuing draft as her wings taking her as fast as she could go. In and out of alleyways, around corners at breakneck speeds, there was no living thing on four hooves that could keep up with Scoot on her scooter...except Rainbow Dash of course. And maybe Pinkie Pie, though no one was quite sure how the pink pony who was fond of skipping everywhere kept up with Dash either. Finally, as the outskirts of town came into sight, Scootaloo rounded one last corner...

And saw him again.

The black Pegasus stood staring at a window...talking to his reflection?

There was barely any time to register the scene in her mind before Scootaloo found herself flying head over hooves off her scooter, having hit possibly the most ill-fitting cobblestone in the town's streets. With a loud cry, she went soaring through the air, crash landing against the Pegasus hard. The impact took them both to the ground. The last thing Scootaloo saw before she blacked out was that unnerving blue and gold gaze looking at her from the ground, just as dazed and confused as she was.

===D.W.===

When she finally opened her eyes and the world stopped spinning, Scootaloo stood up and brushed herself off, looking down at the pile of pony beneath her. His tousled purple mane lay flat on the ground under him, head and hooves splayed at an odd angle as he groaned and twisted, trying to regain some sense of the world around himself.

"Hey, I know you! You're the pony that knocked me over earlier! Dream Catcher, right?" She asked, glaring down at him.

There were a few sharp cracks and pops as the pony moved, his teeth gritted in what looked like pain as he tried to rise to his hooves shakily. With a final crack of his neck, he stood at fully height before her, both of those creepy eyes staring rather blankly down at her. It was then that she truly realized just how young he looked, standing not much taller than she. If anything, his wild mane added a few inches to his rather miniscule stature. This pony was definitely no more than an older colt.

"Hmm? What just happened...and who are...oh. I remember now. You're the little Pegasus from before." He noted casually, as if their little collision now had never happened.

"Yeah, that's me. The name's Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash's number one fan! Don't forget it Mister." She nodded smartly, standing proud.

When no reply came from her conversation partner, she looked up to see him staring out beyond her, mouth open in shock.

"Oh no...this is bad. This is rather bad. It's not supposed to happen like this." He started to tremble visibly, rocking unsteadily on his legs like a new foal learning to walk.

"What are you talking about?" Scoot asked before turning to look behind her at whatever it was that had shaken him up so bad.

For a moment...she almost wished she hadn't.

A thick fog had settled around Ponyville, blocking out view of the town for more than a few feet in any direction. If she hadn't just slammed Dream Catcher into a building, she'd almost be certain that there wasn't one sitting just a hop skip and a jump away. On top of that, a heavy chill hung to the air, clutching at her tiny body; attempting to illicit shivers or suck the life out of her, she wasn't sure.

"Wait...what happened to Ponyville? It wasn't like this just a minute ago." She asked.

The black Pegasus still stood there, utterly in shock.

"No no no no no no..." He kept repeating over and over like a broken music box.

"What's wrong? Are you gonna say something different, or do I have to run you over again?" She demanded.

"You silly little filly...you don't realize what you've done. You...you broke my concentration...and now we're stuck here..." Dream Catcher stepped past her carefully back out into the street, almost disappearing from view.

"Hey, wait! Don't go anywhere, I've got some questions for you!" She called angrily, following him after collecting the ruins of her scooter.

Dream Catcher however, seemed lost in his own little world at the moment. The black Pegasus remained upon his hooves, just barely, as he stood in the middle of the intersection, looking up one alleyway and down the next, his gaze very unsure. Scootaloo wasn't sure herself if everything was okay. Something nagged at the back of her mind that aside from the fog, there was something very wrong here. She carefully followed Dream Catcher through the alley as he began to move forward, looking both ways like she was taught just to be sure now that there weren't any carriages coming since she could see about as well as if it were pitch black.

When he finally stopped moving, Scootaloo tried to pinpoint their location, only to be met with the same wall of fog all around. If she remembered correctly, following the streets the way they had, Sugar Cube Corner was just around the next corner...and Twilight's Library was straight down the street ahead of them and to the right.

But even those were just guesses at that moment; the stupid fog made it too hard to see anything clearly enough to tell where she was. For all intents and purposes...Scootaloo, for the first time in her life...was lost in Ponyville.

"Well this bites." She remarked, keeping a close eye on Dream Catcher.

"We have to get to my house." He spoke up, rather suddenly.

"Wait what?"

"If we're where I think we are, it shouldn't be too far. Without some things from my house, we'll never make it out of here alive." He finished.

Those words drove a needle of fear straight to Scoot's heart.

'Make it out alive? Did he just...' Her mind began to run circles around itself...as if it hadn't been ever since she'd met this stupid pony.

To solidify that needle, there came a slight noise from their left, up the street. Through the fog, Scootaloo couldn't see what had made it, but the sound urged her forward until she found herself pressing against Dream Catcher's flank. She turned to look up at the Pegasus and found him staring back down at her.

"I guess I'll have to look out for you too." He spoke, barely audible. If she'd been anywhere else, those words would've unnerved Scootaloo more than his creepy, seemingly soulless gaze. But, as she turned to look back around at the setting, she found them something of a small comfort instead. If it meant getting her questions answered and more so...she gulped, staying alive...she could deal with him watching out for her for a bit.

"Okay then. Stick close little filly." He spoke again, his voice almost trance-like. As if he wasn't all there.

Suddenly, the little bit of hope she'd been holding onto vanished.

'Oh brother. I'm trapped in a fog filled Ponyville...and this is the guy I get stuck with? I hope we can find the others soon.' She thought.

Slowly but surely, the two began to walk the empty streets, Scootaloo noticing differences now as they came and went by buildings. First and foremost, there were no stars in the sky even though it was blacker than the fur of the pony she was following.

Secondly, most of the buildings in town seemed to be a lot older than what she remembered. And she meant OLD Older. Like...Princess Celestia and Princess Luna old. Not that the Princesses were 'ugly' old or 'boring' old or anything, she thought to herself...just making note of it to pass the time and satisfy curiosity. A lot of the structures around her seemed like they'd been built a really long time ago. Even the streets were different. There was no cobblestone or brick in them to be seen. They were just plain old dirt roads. That in itself was unnerving enough.

But the most disturbing thing that Scootaloo could see...was that the town of Ponyville...usually so full of life, bright colors and energy...seemed to be a bleak remnant done in drab palettes. It was like all the life had been leeched from the world and replaced with a foreboding gray that served no more purpose than to drain her of all emotion.

"This is really creepy...what happened here?" She asked.

"Nothing. We're still in Ponyville...just from a long time ago." Dream Catcher replied up ahead.

"What do you mean, a long time ago? We traveled through time?"

The Pegasus shrugged.

"Sort of. This is a kind of like a memory of the town as it used to be. Back before things changed for the better. It was like this when I grew up here." He trailed off, seemingly lost in thought.

"So wait...that means that we're not even in the Ponyville I know anymore?" The idea felt like a rock sitting in the pit of Scootaloo's stomach.

Without so much as a word, Dream Catcher turned and walked into a building. It looked much like the rest of them, a pale cream-gray color that seemed to blend in with the thick white-gray fog that had settled in. Hesitantly, Scootaloo followed him inside to find that this building, while drab and distorted on the outside...was very homey and warm on the inside, despite the chill that came in through the door. She quickly rushed in, almost toppling over a plank of wood that was lying on the floor.

"Now who would leave this just out in the middle of the room?" She asked more to herself than anyone else in particular.

"Ah. I'd take that with you if I were you. And here. You'll be needing this too, in case we get separated." Dream Catcher came round from the other side of the room behind a work bench, holding what looked like a rather ornate music box out in one hoof. Scootaloo admired it, quickly looking over the decorative designs that were inlaid on the cover, opening it up to hear a very familiar sounding lullaby playing inside of it. Much to her surprise, there was a large S carved into the underside of the lid, and what appeared to be the shape of a scooter and a tiny Pegasus over the S.

"Hey, this looks like me." She smiled.

"I wouldn't be surprised. Everything in this world is suited to the one meant to have, see or experience it." Dream Catcher sighed, pulling two saddlebags out of the closet. One for him, and apparently one for Scootaloo as neither would've ever fit a full grown pony and the one he hoofed her was smaller than his. The bag was definitely suited for a filly or colt.

Taking his advice, since he vaguely appeared know what was going on, Scootaloo placed the music box inside the bag, and strapped it on. Once it was secured, she took the plank of wood for whatever reason he deemed fit...and slung it under a loose strap on the bag.

"Are you sure I'm gonna need these things?" She asked.

All he could do was nod.

"There are things out there my little filly...that you may or may not be ready to understand or remember. But if you're here...it's time that you did. There will be dangers along the way. That's why I'm coming with you. That music box I gave you...will let you know when there's monsters arou..."

"Monsters?" She cut him off, looking up at him. "What do you mean, Monsters?"

Dream Catcher turned his flank to her, as if he wanted to say something, but wasn't sure how to put it.

"You are going to see things...how can I explain this?" He thought for a moment, a hoof to his chin. Scootaloo waited patiently until he found his words again. "I don't know what they're going to look like to you...but there's things out there that defy the normal terms of the word Monster. And dare I say, they mean to do you harm. You'll need to protect yourself, little filly."

Despite the fear that had been growing steadily inside of her, against the fact that the creepy pony she had been so caught up in had said hinted that there were dangerous things out there, Scootaloo pulled herself together and in one big breath...

There it was. The pose. The attitude. The pride of the pony she idolized, coming out in full style.

"I ain't scared of nothin, Mister. I learned from the best!" She puffed out her chest, trying to make herself as impressive as possible, no matter how much she felt that nagging fear inside of her.

"Princess Luna?" He asked.

"No!" Scoot stomped her hooves. "Come on, how many times do I have to say it? Rainbow Dash! Augh!" She cried angrily.

Dream Catcher shook his head and sighed.

"I only hope this Rainbow Dash taught you enough, little filly. This is a very dangerous place we're about to venture into. And I won't rest until I've got you back safe in the Ponyville you know..." He spoke with that dreamy voice again, adding afterwords when she had turned her attention to the house around her..."Even if you being here is your own fault."

"So then...what do we have to do to get home?" Scootaloo asked, her inspection of the surroundings seemingly satisfied for the moment.

"That's just it. Only you will know." He replied, cool and calmly.

"Huh? That doesn't make any sense. I don't even know how we got here in the first place."

Dream Catcher shrugged, making for the doorway.

"Well...I can only hope for your sake that you're ready for whatever it is that awaits you out there. I've seen this world do horrible things to ponies. I can only imagine what it would do to you."

"Not exactly comforting." Scoot retorted as she followed close behind the elder pony. "So just what is this place then?" She asked.

Dream Catcher stopped before the doorway, turning around to face her as he took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

"This place...my young filly...is your worst nightmare."

Just a Tiny Set Back

~So when we all sit down and venture into our own subconscious mind, we can often find the path we seek in life is fraught with many many trials. Often times, we will find that the smallest obstacles in our lives can become our worst fears and from there...can turn into the things our nightmares are made of.~

-An excerpt from the Book of Fillysophical Studies, by: Dr. Rhindquarters

===D.W.===

Scootaloo wasn't still sure she entirely trusted this Pegasus, but for the moment she had little choice. He had wandered back out into the chilled, fog filled air of the dark Ponyville with that same glaze-eyed look that he'd flashed her a few times since they'd arrived. It was really beginning to eat her, wondering if he truly had any idea as to what he was doing. It wasn't until then that she had realized exactly why it had bothered her. Stealing a quick glance at the objects that so unnerved her, Scoot took notice to one simple thing she couldn't believe she'd missed before.

The black circles in his eyes were missing. Well, not missing really, but more faded and dulled to a dimmer color of which ever eye they were supposed to be in. If she remembered right; according to Twilight, Dream was supposed to be blind if he was in fact the same pony that was in her book. This realization fell on her harder than any other so far. If he couldn't see what he was doing, how had he known what to pack...let alone where to get it from or to tell it apart from any of the other detritus that was lying about what he claimed to be his home?

Scootaloo put the terrifying ideas out of her mind and examined the contents of her saddlebag while they walked. The ornate music box sat deep within the bag along with a few bottles of some kinda cough syrup looking stuff. Included in there was also a roll or two of bandages for each pony, a bottle of lamp oil and a small lantern that hung from a pole strapped securely to the bag. It hovered securely just over her shoulder below eye sight so that it wouldn't blind her as she followed Dream Catcher who knew where. Somehow, the only thing out of place was the music box, but even that in itself was an oddity with the gold embossed filly riding the scooter over the letter S.

"Hey...just where are we going, anyway?" She finally broke the silence after a few blocks to shake her mind of its train of though. His not-so cold-shoulder routine was getting old.

"Hmm? I'm just wandering around right now, waiting for you to decide what you're going to do." He replied casually, as though they were friends shopping at the Ponyville General Store.

Scoot's jaw nearly hit the ground at his answer, but...'I guess I shouldn't have expected less...' she thought grimly, her mind now firmly back on its previous track. He really was clueless.

"So this really is something that I have to do?"

He nodded, illiciting a slight moan from the fitful filly.

"Well...where do I start then? What should I do?"

There was a soft click and a slight crack as the pony ruffled his wings uncomfortably. He turned to look down one street, then arched his head around to check out the other behind him; a much stranger sight now that Scootaloo had come to her revelation.

"First thing's first I guess. Where do you live, little filly?"

Scoot turned around and began walking towards what she presumed to be the outskirts of town, feeling a light haze come over her mind. Her thoughts became jumbled as the two pegasi pressed on, Scoot finding herself having more and more trouble thinking straight. It didn't matter though. She picked up her pace; half to get home and half to get away from the crazy-eyed pony.

"I think it's this way. I've lived in Ponyville my whole life, but we just moved not that long ago so I gotta see where we are first." She nodded.

"Very well then. Lead the way." Dream Catcher smiled, though his eyes kept shifting about warily.

Scootaloo was pretty sure she could find her house if she could get through the fog and see what was what. They'd gone a fair distance from Dream's place, turning here and going this or that way just wandering aimlessly for a bit. But, if her memory served correct, all they needed to do was turn left about three streets back in the direction they came and follow that road until they hit the fence at the end of town...and they'd be right in her back yard. With a direction in mind for the moment, she trotted off at a brisk pace hoping that the other pony could keep up. He hadn't seemed to be the fastest moving thing on four hooves. But then again, he hadn't really been in a rush to get anywhere but his own house since they'd arrived. Not exactly strange for a pony who most likely couldn't see his hoof in front of his face. Even for that though, he'd still surprisingly navigated his way fairly well, to Scootaloo's enlightened amazement.

They walked in silence together for a bit, the only sound being that of their own four hooves on the ground as they continued until she faintly overheard him humming something as he followed along.

"Hey...I recognize that song. It's Fluttershy's lullaby." She stopped, craning her neck around to look at him. He paused too, giving her a curious look.

"Fluttershy? I've never heard of anypony with that name."

"How do you not know her? She's only like...the best animal care-taker in all of Ponyville." Scoot cocked an eyebrow at him. He merely shook his head.

"Sorry. This song is something my own mother used to sing to me. It was very popular, so I can imagine that other ponies would know it. After all, it's soft and catchy at the same time."

She shook her head, clearing away the thought that maybe Dream Catcher and Fluttershy were somehow related, passing it off that there was no possible way someone as kind and careful as her friend could be connected to this dolt. Just as she put the last bit of it out of her mind, there was an odd mechanical clicking that erupted from her bag.

Scootaloo sat down, pulling the music box from the saddlebag to see the key turning awkwardly. It clanked and twisted itself around inside the keyhole as if inserted improperly. But when she tried to fix it, the key wouldn't budge. Instead, the box itself began to play a very distorted version of the lullaby. Picking it up, Scoot shook it around lightly, and the box rattled like some of the pieces had fallen out and were dislodged somewhere inside the mechanism.

"Hey, I think this box is broke." She said, turning to look at Dream Catcher.

He wasn't paying her any attention though. His eyes seemed to be fixed on something just past her down the fog enshrouded road. With the slow realization of the emotion seating in those blue and gold eyes, Scootaloo gulped, turning to follow his gaze.

A black form was moving through the fog, just far enough out of sight to cast a silhouette on the shroud. Whatever it was, there was no pony in town big enough to make it. That was for certain. It was roughly about as tall as a carriage if the swaying shadow was anything to go on, and just wide enough that they'd have a hard time getting past it had there been any stands or carts alongside the side of the street. It didn't seem to be getting any closer though, just looming there beyond their range of vision, idly listing back and forth as though it were being blown in a gentle breeze.

"Uh...Dream Catcher? What is that?" She asked, slowly backing towards the Pegasus.

"Just what are you...", He paused mid-sentence, slowly swiveling his head down to look at her in shock when the form shifted...only continuing when it didn't move again,"that whatever this thing is could be the least of your troubles?"

He almost literally picked his jaw up from where it had fallen, motioning to Scootaloo to continue moving away from the monster. The two continued backing away in the direction they had come, only to feel the ground shake under them. Dream Catcher turned around and froze, prompting Scoot to stumble over him.

"Hey, watch it." Picking herself up, the young pony turned to look at him when there behind them, she saw another black shadow...just as big as the first...but much, MUCH closer.

There was a deep and low rumble from the new shadow. It began moving towards them at a lumbering pace, the ground shaking as it neared with each thunderous step. Both ponies retreated back, only to find the other shadow was now fixated on them as well and on the move, closing off their escape. They were trapped in the middle of the block between the two massive shadows.

They had little time and both of them knew it. Dream Catcher ran off to one side of the street, trying all the doorknobs he could find. Scoot took the hint and tried the other side, both shadows growing ever larger. As they neared, a pressure started to build behind Scootaloo's eyes. It slowly began to throb the nearer they got until at last, after checking door after door, she found one whose handle didn't rattle locked when she tried it.

"Here!" She cried out as she bolted inside, the music box blaring its mechanical crunching louder than ever.

Dream Catcher was on her heels almost immediately, moving surprisingly faster than she thought he could. Within seconds, the door was closed and locked.

The music box didn't stop grinding however. What little light poured in from outside through the front door window was soon blotted out by a massive form. The door began to shake on its hinges as one...or maybe both of the creatures started throwing its weight against the wooden frame. The door splintered and rattled harshly, urging both ponies to venture further into the building.

All was pitch black, though far from silent. If not for the light from their lanterns, they wouldn't have been able to see the tips of their noses. The music box was still grating, though not as harsh, now that they'd temporarily escaped the brutish things outside.

Thankfully, the pressure in Scootaloo's head had lessened as well, but still pounded in time with the creatures outside throwing their weight against the door. Just the fact that it resonated in time with those monsters made her want to get away from them all that much more. Fortunately though, the seemingly flimsy wooden structure held and after a few more tries, the noise stopped as the creatures seemed to give up.

"Where do you think we are?" She asked, once it seemed that the two beasts had left.

"I'm not sure. This looks like a plain old earth pony house to me." Dream Catcher spoke up as he looked around the room.

Holding the lanterns aloft, the two ponies started searching around for another way out of the building. It proved difficult to say the least. The house was in various states of disrepair. Floor boards were pulled up, the walls looked water-logged and there were no visible light sources to be lit to aide them in their search. Everything was in a dilapidated mess.

"This place is creepy." Scoot voiced firmly. Her wandering had brought her to a fireplace with figurines on the mantlepiece and portraits on the wall. The figurines themselves appeared to be ceramic headless mock-ups of ponies all engaged in different activities. If not for their fractures and missing pieces, Scoot would've wagered that they'd have been some kind of collectible. The portraits however seemed to be in pristine condition when one compared them to the rest of the house.

There were four of them total, two on each side of the fireplace. Taking a closer look, the orange pegasus could make out words in small hoofwriting on aged golden plates at the bottom of each frame. From left to right, they were titled "Home", "Family", "Friendship" and "Heart".

The picture of Home depicted a pony standing outside of a small, single story house. It was simply designed with two windows and a door, but the pony in the image seemed overjoyed with it. Family showed four ponies all standing together in some kind of room. Three of the four faces had been cut out though, leaving only one left intact. Friendship was much like the Family picture only there were a lot of different ponies of all types grouped around in a group embrace. Heart simply showed two ponies, muzzle to muzzle, framed in a rather large, tacky heart shape.

"Ugh. This is boring." Scoot thought aloud as she backed away from the pictures. "No wonder nopony is here. It's not just falling apart, but these decorations are just...lame."

Dream Catcher sauntered over to her and looked up at the pictures as well. The Pegasus didn't appear to be feeling all that well, now that Scootaloo looked him over. He stood before the pictures as he had outside of his own house, his body looked shaky, and with his mane down over the blue eye. Truth be told, the slightly older pony looked to be on the verge of being diseased or deathly ill.

It was just in that second that Scootaloo noticed that his golden eye was glowing ever so slightly. The color in the eye seemed to be moving as he gazed at the portraits, unblinking.

"Uh hey...you okay?" She asked.

The Pegasus just continued to stare at the portraits.

"Hey, crazy pony." She tried again. Dream made no acknowledgement of her.

"Fine! I'm going to look around some more. You just...do whatever." She huffed, walking through the only other door in the main room. It led her into a sitting room of sorts. Mahogany chairs done up with iron studded feather-down stuffed fabrics were sprawled out here and there, some overturned, other pieces just broken or against the logic of everything else in the building: normally arranged and perfectly fine. One exit led to what looked like a kitchen in the dim lantern light, and there was a staircase that went upstairs though some of the stairs had broken, leaving a gap in the set too big to jump up and over.

Shaking her head clear of what little pressure remained, Scoot pushed on into the kitchen. It was much the same as the rest of the house. Appliances toppled or damaged, a very slowly leaking faucet. A table upended and broken, missing three of its four legs. She went on, moving past it when something caught her eye.

There, on the last remaining leg of the table was her name, etched into the wood in very bad hoofwriting. Beneath it was an arrow pointing down towards the underside of the table.

That caught her interest as she moved onto the table, inspecting the construction of it for anything that the arrow might've been pointing at. After a few discouraging minutes of searching, she turned up nothing special. With a sigh, she sat down on the underside of the table, looking around the room. Maybe the arrow had been pointing at something else and somepony had moved it. But who? And why was her name on it?

There came a sharp crack.

Scoot felt herself falling. Everything had gone black around her, and wind was now rushing up past her face.

The table had been covering a hole in the floor. It had been a trap...and she'd fallen for it like some silly filly caught in a sick prank. She was still falling for it, quite literally. With nothing to break her fall in sight, Scoot did the only thing she could think of. She started flapping her wings feebly in an attempt to slow her descent. Odd though, hard as she tried, it felt like she was still falling. Her mind screamed at her that she should've collided with the basement floor by that point. She kept flapping however, expecting to suddenly feel cold, hard stone smack her in the rump painfully. But it never came. Instead, she just continued falling.

After what seemed like forever, Scootaloo could finally see some sort of light coming up from beneath her. It started out as a soft red, almost like that of a morning sunrise or late evening sunset. It was of a shade that reminded her of countless mornings spent with Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom out in the Crusaders Treehouse, and despite the surroundings she had found herself in, the orange filly couldn't help but feel slightly relaxed. As the light continued to grow from a pinpoint to a full glow however, the space around her was slowly illuminated.

Any thought of the beauty of the light or fun mornings full of adventures with her two best friends in the world vanished as Scoot screamed.

Ponies in cages. All over the place.

Rushing up past her and out of sight.

Row after row of caged ponies, all crying out. Some were pale, others were dreadfully thin. All of them appeared to be in pain. Their faces were scrunched in agony being brought on them by some unseen force.

And then it hit. She landed with a muffled splash into something sticky. Something that made it very hard for her to move. She could feel herself sinking into it with every attempt to get to the surface. The hazy red light from above had cast everything into a deep orange glow in the liquid, making it very hard to see. She knew somewhere up there was freedom, yet no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't push herself up. It became increasingly hard for her to move until at last, her limbs froze in place. She was stuck tight and almost...out of...

Finally, with her lungs on fire and her limbs aching, Scoot's lung gave up and expelled what was left of her air. Just before she blacked out, the sound of something shattering echoed in her ears.

===D.W.===

"Hey...Little Filly!"

Somewhere a voice was calling to her.

"Come on, wake up. Oh...this isn't good. Hey, Scootalong or...was it Scooterloo...Whatever, just Wake Up!"

Somepony was shaking her roughly. Tapping on her cheeks. Folding and unfolding her wings. She could move again, she noticed with a start.

Opening her eyes, she saw Dream Catcher standing over top of her, that unnerving pair of eyes looking down at her in worry. She bolted up, almost knocking heads with the older pony before looking around.

A cursory inspection provided the idea that she was still in the kitchen, lying on top of the table bottom. Her lantern sputtered pitifully, its oil supply already growing low. In the dim light, she could see one of his hooves had been bandaged up, a red stain on the white gauze.

"Are you all right, little filly?" He asked.

She nodded, getting to her own hooves.

"What happened to you?" She pointed to his hoof.

He looked down at it, obviously favoring it for the pain it was in.

"I was examining the portraits when one of those brutes from outside tried the door again. The first picture fell off the wall when the thing hit the door and I tried to catch it, but the corner grazed me and the frame cracked on the ground. Glass everywhere. It's a bit of a mess." He sighed.

'Well...that's what made the noise then.' She silently nodded to herself, picking up the lantern and reattaching it to its pole.

"Are you sure you're okay?" His voice came across in genuine worry. For a moment, he almost sounded like Twilight or Fluttershy.

"I'm fine. Did you find another way out of here?"

He shook his head.

"Without any way to get past the hole in the stairs, we can't go up, so that leaves only the front door. We appear to be in a section of row homes, smack dab in the middle of all of them."

"So what next then?" She asked.

"What happened to you just now?"

Scootaloo shrugged.

"I dunno. I think I just kinda passed out or something. I don't get it either."

"Did you see anything?" He seemed persistent.

"Well...not much." She started, unsure if she really wanted to share what she'd just gone through.

"It could be something of importance little filly. I'd advise you to share, if you feel you can."

Scoot took a deep breath before nodding.

"All right." Her ears folded back as she began, thinking about everything that had happened. "I was falling for a long time and I couldn't see anything. But then there was this light. It showed me that there were ponies in cages all around me, the whole time I was falling. It was weird...and then I fell into this lake of something or other that I couldn't move in. I thought I was gonna drown, but that's when you woke me up."

"Is that all?" He sat down in thought.

"Yup. That's all." She finished. 'Wasn't that enough? It was scary...where did it come from?' Her mind was racing at that.

Without another moment's pause, the pony stood up and started pacing around the kitchen. His eyes were focused for pretty much the first time since she'd met him, as if he was really thinking about what she'd told him.

"Any ideas?"

He paused for just a second.

"I'm hungry."

Scoot nearly face-planted at that. How could he be thinking of food at a time like this? They were stuck in a house in a strange alternate reality of Ponyville, surrounded by monsters and nightmares that threatened to sneak up and knock you out or worse when you least expected it! The very thought made her forget her fears of the dream-thing that had just happened and in its place set a need for her to kick him hard.

"What does THAT have to do with what just happened?!" She yelled in disbelief.

He merely shrugged.

"One thing you must understand, little filly..."

"My Name is SCOOTALOO. S-C-O-O-T-ALOO!"

"Okay...Scooterloo."

"AUGH! Nevermind!" She stormed off back into the sitting room.

"What I'm just trying to say is that nothing in this world happens without a reason little one. The sooner you come to realize that, the better. If I'm hungry, then this world is pointing me in the direction of a place that deals in food. But that's just me. I can't say that it'll get YOU any closer to the Ponyville that you know, but I am out of ideas." He continued, following her back into the room.

"Whatever! You go do what you want. I'm gonna go find my friends." She spat back, irritated beyond belief with his nonchalance of the situation.

"I wouldn't advise that. Besides, I told you I'd look out for you." He replied.

"No! I'm a tough pony! I don't need anypony to look out for me! Especially one that can't even see where he's going!" That seemed to halt him in his tracks. "I'm Just like Rainbow Dash." She growled through her teeth. "I hate it when others think they need to protect me. I'm good enough at taking care of myself."

"Please, Scooterloo..."

"SCOOT-AH-LOO!" She yelled again. "Ya know what, nevermind. I'm getting out of here. I'll be fine, you go do whatever it is that your crazy-eyed self wants to."

Scoot stomped off for the front door. Dream Catcher was still following close behind.

"Please, just listen to me. You don't know what's out there..." he tried again.

"And neither do you, apparently! I remember what you said earlier. You didn't know what those monsters were either! Just go. Go eat until you get stuffed." She kicked at the door after finding the monsters had jammed it so bad the handle wouldn't open it. After a few tries, the door flew free of its twisted hinges and collapsed with a crash on the front steps of the house. Outside, the fog had neither lifted, nor lightened.

Scoot made her way out into the street again, not really caring to look back to see if Dream Catcher was still trying to keep up with her. She found she really didn't care for her questions about the strange pony anymore. He was going to just treat her like all the other adult ponies did. Like a little filly. True, her mind reasoned, she was only a filly...but that didn't mean she was incapable of doing things for herself. She'd find her own way. She'd beat this...whatever it was that was going on. Even if she had to face down whatever monsters it was going to throw at her.

With new determination, she walked off down the street, coming to an intersection. The streets seemed familiar enough, so with her mind made up, she turned right towards what she believed was going to be the way to Sugar Cube Corner, looking for Pinkie Pie. If anypony could help her find everypony, it would be Pinkie and the pink mare was rarely seen elsewhere unless she was with the others, or throwing a party. It wasn't until a few more steps down the street that she was hit by the irony of the situation.

"Hungry..." She thought, realizing her current destination. 'Maybe there Is something to what he said...'

Scootaloo shook it out of her head. No, she'd do this on her own. She didn't need his help. She didn't need those creepy eyes staring at her all the time. She didn't need...

There came a crash along a side alleyway that halted Scoot in her tracks. She turned to look, but only saw more fog, more shadows. Nothing moved. When she was at last sure she was still alone, Scootaloo took to the alleyway to figure out what had made that noise.

"Hello? Is anypony there?" She called out.

There was no reply.

"Hello? I heard something down here...is everything okay?" She tried again.

Still no reply.

Sucking in a deep breath, Scoot pressed on into the shadows and fog, searching for the source of the crash.

===D.W.===

"I should have gone after her. Why didn't I go?" Dream Catcher paced the front room, furious with himself. "I'm responsible if anything happens to her...so why didn't I go?"

"Yrassecen saw ti wenk uoy esuaceb." Came that strange, haunting voice again.

Dream Catcher poised himself over pieces of broken glass from the portrait of Home that had fallen, staring down into them.

"Really? Was it? Why am I not allowed to interfere! Somepony of her age shouldn't have to experience this kind of nightmare!" He blared angrily at his reflection in one of the shards.

Blue-Gold eyes stared out at him from multiple pieces of the framed glass that now lay all over the floor. The deathly thin figure mocked him in every way, right down to its cheap imitation of his once joyful laugh.

"Ereh seog ti woh tsuj staht. Niaga dna emit erofeb uoy dlot I."

"Well then...you want me to do this so bad, what ideas do you have? How can I help her?" He asked.

"Woh wonk ydaerla uoy." His reflection smirked.

Dream Catcher's head hung.

"Are you sure there's no other way?"

"Uoy od sa. Hturt eht ees ot sdeen ehs. Yaw ylno eht si siht."

He kicked his hooves out, striking a hole into the wall in frustration.

"Fine! Fine!" He cried. "All right, I get it! If I can help that little filly out of here...then..." He sighed, his head hung again..."I guess there is no other way."

"Yaw ym ti was uoy emit tuoba sti." His reflection sneered.

Dream Catcher put a hoof to one of the shards, closing his eyes as his mane and tail began to float up all around him, a breeze whipping up as the room was bathed in a hazy red glow.

"Just promise me this will help her."

There was a gut-wrenching feeling as Dream Catcher felt his world ripped away from him. It was a feeling he'd become used to, much to his regret. Once the ground beneath his hooves stopped spinning, he opened his eyes to stare his reflected self face to face.

"Oh, it will." The other pony smirked. "Welcome home."

===D.W.===

Scootaloo had found a trashcan tipped over on its side, its contents spilled all over the ground. She had side-stepped it the first time, crossing over only to find a dead end at the opposite side of the alley. A high wooden fence blocked the passage way, leaving no escape for anypony who might've been the cause of the trashcan being knocked over.

"That's just weird." She thought out loud, going back to inspect the trashcan. It was full of rubbish, as one would expect. "But then again..." She began to pick through the trash, bit by bit until she turned up a small key with a tag on the end. "Nothing happens without reason here..." Scoot's eyes lit up as she saw the words 'Sugar Cube Corner' in the now common style of hoofwriting she'd been seeing lately on the tag.

"I guess there is something to that crazy old pony after all." She smiled softly as she made her way back towards the entrance to the alleyway.

===D.W.===

Dream Catcher was standing atop a tall building behind an odd contraption. He gazed out over the desolation, though not much could be seen. Higher up, the Fog only obstructed more from his vision as his gaze searched for the filly from above. Resigning himself to the duty at hoof, he returned his attention to the small machine before him that had been affixed to the edge of the roof. Confused as to where its normal operator was, he gingerly took the crank-handle in his mouth and began to turn it slowly.

iI really hope this is the right thing to do...' He thought to himself, his shadowy doppelganger standing on the opposite side peering out into the fog with a look of pure glee plastered all over his charlatan muzzle.

"If you truly want to help her, you'll have to turn that crank faster than that." The other pony chuckled. "It has to spin fast to work right."

Dream Catcher stopped for a moment, spitting the handle out.

"You're SURE she'll be okay?" He demanded.

The other pony merely casually nodded.

"If she's strong enough. If not, her worries will be over anyway." The dark pony's face contorted into a wicked grin. "Now get back to it. If that doesn't get up to speed properly, it'll never work."

Dream Catcher sighed, resigning himself to his now-solid-reflection's orders. With a tear glistening in one eye, he lowered his mouth back to the handle of the device.

'Please be safe, little filly.' He thought disdainfully...and began to crank with all his might.

===D.W.===

"Okay, I know the alley wasn't this long before." Scootaloo sat on her haunches, looking down at the street that never seemed to get any closer. It couldn't have been more than a couple yards away moments ago, but now it seemed as if the alley stretched halfway across town. Even as she looked at it...it seemed to grow longer, faster, every second.

Suddenly, there was a deafening noise that split the air. It rose in pitch, even as Scoot ducked her head and put her hooves to her ears. When it reached its apex, it slowly wound down though kept its volume...and then began to pick back up again.

'A Siren? What's that going off for?'

Even as the words crossed her mind, the entrance to the alleyway disappeared from sight and the sky around her began to darken even further...as if the blackness from above was slowly descending upon the town. As the sky seemed to fall down around her, the lantern on her pole flickered and died as well, leaving her to hope that she could still see once everything was said and done. Scootaloo continued to plug her ears, but watched in both awe and a little bit of terror as the world around her started to go blacker than the blackest night...until even with her eyes open, she couldn't see the ground in front of her nose. It lasted for a bit before the siren finally died down in one long tone. Once it had finally quieted, Scootaloo picked herself up and tried feeling her way around.

"Wait a second...this wasn't here before..."

She found a three-point intersection in the small, tight alleyway that she'd somehow missed in the light and began to feel her way down it. As she did, she found she could start to see around her. There was some source of light at the end where the buildings parted into another street that was thankfully providing enough illumination as she made her way.

"Maybe I can refill the lantern up there..."

Once at the end of the alley, she found herself standing on top what was a metal plate set into the ground. Looking around, the entire street had become a sheet of metal. The sidewalks that had been hard packed dirt were now made out of some kind of mortar, like they'd use in building bridges to hold the stones together. A bigger shock though, was the structures around her. Not only could she see, now that the fog had mysteriously vanished; but all of the buildings were either falling apart or done up in metal mesh and I-beams, or chain link steel, brick and something slick that covered their outer surface.

It took a moment for Scoot to calm herself down, seeing all of the changes. There was definitely something wrong here. Not that there hadn't been before, but all these new changes had taken her by quite the unwelcome surprise.

"Oh man...maybe I should've stayed with Dream Catcher..."

The thought was solidified when she heard another crash come from behind her, back in the alley. Turning around, and not just the bit scared, she stared hard into the still encroaching darkness she'd just come from.

There.

Something had moved.

"Hello?" She called out, hoping that maybe the crazy-eyed pony had caught up with her.

She felt a knot form in her throat as the music box in her bag began its grinding melodic complaint again. That knot deepened and wrapped itself around her lungs as she saw what had made the noise.

It was a pony...no, a filly...

The tiny thing looked so fragile that it could've fallen apart at just the slightest hint of a breeze, yet it came crawling after her, hoof over hoof, its hind legs and flanks so swollen they couldn't move. It was in obvious pain as its underside was being scraped along the rough steel, leaving it rubbed raw. The filly's eyes were blank and lifeless, yet its lungs worked as it let out a harsh scream, trying to pull itself closer and closer to Scoot.

Scootaloo left out a yelp of her own and turned to run, only to see that two more of them were making their way towards her from the street. To make matters worse, there came a resounding boom. The ground trembled once...twice...three times...and the shadow monster that had appeared in the fog now stood at one end of the street. The overgrown Pony glared down at her with two beady little eyes from atop its four massive legs, its entire body covered in what looked like graffiti.

No...

Those were all different Cutie Marks! It was covered in distorted, nightmarish versions of Cutie Marks!

She could also see that they were all boiling like they had been paint that was put in a pot and left on the stove for far too long. The patterns of the marks had bubbles growing and popping all along them, sizzling and searing the creature they resided upon. The titanic pony bit down on itself and sloughed off a good portion of its own skin, trying to rid itself of the pain. Even as the shed skin hit the ground, it boiled its way through the steel leaving a gaping hole in the road.

Scootaloo had seen enough. She closed her eyes, took a breath...

And felt the filly monster from the alleyway clamp its teeth down upon her tail. How had it gotten so close?!

With a scream, Scootaloo tore off down the street, ducking between the two other filly monsters, leaving the third with a mouthful of her tail.

Once the music box had stopped its whining, Scoot stopped running, taking to the sidewalk as she panted and huffed, trying desperately to catch her breath. Her mind was made up. It hadn't been a good idea to leave Dream Catcher behind. It was common knowledge that buildings and streets just don't change like that in the blink of an eye. That monsters don't just walk around in plain sight.

She was officially terrified now.

A Glimpse to the Past

~Nightmare: an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong negative emotional response from the mind. Or...a window into the tormented mind of a badgered soul? Can one really decipher the meaning of dreams and nightmares in order to better comprehend their path in life?

Or are our dreamscape monsters nothing more than childish imaginings of our worst fears?

-An excerpt from the Book of Fillysophical Studies, by: Dr. Rhindquarters

===D.W.===

There was no doubting it. They had been real. The missing hair of her tail and the pain in her rear from where it had pulled out had been real. Scootaloo sat there for the better part of ten minutes just trying to make sense of what had happened. The filly monsters...the giant boiling pony...even the buildings around her. None of it made sense. How had it all got there in the first place? That alley had been clear before the siren sounded.

Maybe that was it. Maybe the siren called them out?

She shook her head.

No, the alleyway had been acting up, if that was even possible, before the alarm had gone off. The siren itself had merely been a warning. One she'd been glad for too. It had unnerved her enough to have her ready to jump at the peep of a mouse. If not for that reaction, she might still be back there with those nightmarish monstrosities.

Since her grand escape away from the filly monster, she'd managed to stumble into an open building, much to her great fortune as yet another boiling pony had crossed the street where she'd decided to rest after her encounter with them. It had seemed to be searching for something, all while rubbing itself raw on the buildings, trying to stave off the pain of its bubbling nightmare marks...a name Scoot found fitting for the big ponies.

'None of this makes sense though! How do you change an entire town like that in the blink of an eye? And where did they all come from? This place was empty before...now there's just scary nasty things walking around like they own the town?'

Not for the first time that night, Scootaloo released an aggravated cry. She let loose at the top of her lungs, kicking the dilapidated wall behind her with every ounce of terror and anger that had built up until she finally calmed down.

Now that she'd got that out of her system, Scoot carefully took the lamp oil out of her bag and filled the empty lamp in the dim light of the room she'd taken shelter in. Unfortunately, Dream Catcher had seen fit to take all the matches saying something along the lines of "Fillies shouldn't fiddle with fire." or some idiotic phrase like that. She didn't care though. She'd find a way to light the stupid thing. With the lamp oil back in her saddlebag and the lantern rehung on its pole, Scoot took her first good look around the building.

It seemed to be some sort of boarding house, once you got past the holes in the floor, the missing staircase to the second floor and the overall burned appearance of the building. It looked like the place had been on fire at one point, and the floor even still felt hot in a few places. Charred black remnants of furniture lie in places and in the one corner of the main entryway, there was a desk for the receptionist. It had been up-ended, its contents scattered around as though somepony had been searching for something.

Scoot took care to avoid the gaping chasms in the floor as she made her way over to the desk, looking down at the various papers and documents. Names of ponies and their general information were visible on the sheets that either had survived the fire or were still legible enough to read.

"And this is useful how?" She asked to the papers, half expecting a response from the pictures of the ponies on them.

With a sigh, she turned around to continue her search when she met with yet another unexpected surprise.

There in the doorway stood a very elegant, yet an ancient looking mare. Her gray coat and silvering dark blue mane and tail stood out in stark contrast to the reds and blacks of the room, eyes still bright with life despite her aged appearance.

"Can I help you, little one?" She called out with a voice deceptive of her age, smooth as silk and harmonious at that.

"Uhm...hello. I don't really know if you can help me, but where am I?" Scootaloo asked.

The mare seemed to think on that for a second.

"Why, you're in Ponyville my little filly." She responded gently.

Scoot shook her head.

"No, I mean what is this place?"

"Oh." The mare took a few steps forward, placing a caring hoof on Scoot's shoulder. "This is Grandma Blankie's Home for Orphaned Foals." She smiled, and the world around them seemed to fade, its horror-inducing trauma momentarily forgotten amidst the friendly face. "And I'm Grandma Blankie."

Scootaloo wanted to jump onto the old mare and hug her with every last ounce of strength she had, finally meeting someone else who was trapped in this hole of a dreamscape. But, the echoing words of those haunting mismatched eyes held her rooted in place for the moment.

'Everything happens for a reason here...'

When Scoot snapped out of her thoughts, she saw Grandma taking note of the saddlebag and lantern with a look of worry on her face.

"Is everything all right, my dear? Have you run away from home?" She asked.

"No, it's nothing like that ma'am. I just got separated from the pony I was with."

"Oh? Were you two going camping? That looks like a lot of stuff you've got there."

Scoot shook her head.

"No ma'am. See...I'm kinda lost. I was trying to find my way home, and then all sorts of weird, scary stuff started happening...then me and Dream Catcher got separated..."

"Dream Catcher?" The mare's ears perked up. "You know him? How is the little dear?"

That caught Scoot off guard.

"Little? He's a grown pony, not that it makes any difference. He still acts like a colt." She scoffed.

Grandma Blankie nodded knowingly.

"Yes, he's a hoofful that one. Never comes home when I tell him to." Even though she obviously had some problems with him, the old mare still had a smile as she talked about the crazy pony.

"Wait...he still lives here?"

"Well yes dear, he's an orphan you know. And he's not old enough to live on his own yet. He can't be much older than you. Anywho dear, is there anything I can help you with? Anything you need?"

Scoot sat back and wondered at that for a moment. Not old enough? Dream seemed just as old as any typical resident of Ponyville. He even called that other place his home. He had to be at least...why did she care?! Here, against all odds, was someone who was willing to help her. Worrying about that dumb-old Pegasus wasn't worth her time now. But maybe, just maybe this Grandma Blankie could help. Although...with those monsters out there, the poor pony wouldn't stand a chance if they got chased, and Scoot knew it. She'd barely escaped, and that was saying a lot, even without her scooter...

A Scooter! It'd be a lot to ask, but maybe...

"Do you have a set of wheels, Grandma Blankie?" She asked.

"Wheels? Whatever would you need wheels for? Are you building a soap-box cart?"

She shook her head, confused. What was a soap-box cart?

"No, like a Scooter. Something I can ride? It'll help me find my friend faster." Wait...had she just called him...yes, she sighed. She had.

"A what now?"

Scootaloo's heart sank.

"You know, a scooter? Two wheels, a set of handlebars, a flat spot for a pony to ride on it?"

The old mare wracked her brain, but came up as blank as her name suggested.

"Sorry dear. I've never seen anything like that. But, I do have something you might be able to use if you need to get around faster. Just wait here, okay?"

And with that, Scoot's hopes were renewed, though she doubted anything that came from a burnt out old building like this could be of any use. As Grandma Blankie went off in search of whatever it was she thought might be useful, obviously ignorant of or rather not caring about the holes in the floor and the fact that the building felt like it would fall down at any given moment, Scootaloo took the time out to search on her own.

For all intents and purposes, the building was a mess. In the second room, left of the main entryway, there was a small office that was in just as much disrepair as the main room had been. There were a few portraits on the walls and some more paperwork scattered around, but everything in here had been just as damaged by the suggested fire as ever. When that room turned up fruitless, Scoot crossed over to the left of the main hall and found a room quite unlike the rest of the building.

Not for the first time, she found herself standing in a room that just didn't fit in with the rest of the town. Here, sunlight shone through the windows onto a hardwood floor done up in a fancy kind of wood with highlights that reflected back with such intensity that Scoot had to squint at first to see anything.

This room appeared to run the length of the building, two bright sky-blue walls lined with little beds all made up nice and neat with some obvious tender loving care. Pillows were fluffed, blankets were tucked, and on some nightstands, trinkets and photos stood as if they'd never been touched since their owners had last handled them.

Scootaloo took care as she wandered around, looking at each individual nightstand and the ornamental pieces on top of the ones that were in use, feeling rather at ease for the first time since she had come to this world.

"Time stands still here, little filly." A familiar voice called out from behind her.

Scoot spun around quickly to see those irritatingly creepy eyes staring back at her. Dream Catcher stood at the far end of the room where she had entered. He held himself there for a moment before turning to look out a window at the scenery of the town outside. Ponies of every color were busy trotting up and down the street, busying themselves with their daily tasks. As Scootaloo approached, he turned around again and walked over to a single bed that now stood out from the rest, unkempt and messy.

"You live here?" Scoot asked. "But I thought we were at your house before? And where did you go when those monsters attacked me? I thought you said you were going to look out for me!" She cried out angrily, a wave of emotions rocking over her as tears started to come to her eyes.

He didn't so much as turn an ear to her.

"I used to live here. Grandma Blankie was a sweet old mare who took care of those of us who couldn't do it for ourselves. Each of these blankets she made herself, just for us. She loved to sew...she made blankets by the dozen, that's how she got her name."

He paused momentarily, taking time to wipe a tear from his eyes as he looked down to what Scoot presumed to be his old bed. He continued as he knelt down next to it.

"None of us ever did find out her real name, but it was better that way...because we knew her by that name. Anything else would've just been...well...wrong." He spoke, a hint of sadness in his voice.

"What do you mean was? I just saw her a minute ago."

He shook his head.

"Grandma Blankie died when this building caught fire. She ran back inside for something after we were all out safely. The firepony said that she'd gone to get something special, but we never knew what it was that was so important. When they pulled her out of here, they took her away to Ponyville General...and that was the last we saw of her."

"But...that can't be. She's looking for something right now!" Scootaloo protested.

Dream Catcher stood up and walked back towards the window slowly, his mane once again covering his blue eye thankfully. At least with only one showing, Scoot could pretend that he was something close to normal...

And then, he vanished. The room around her had changed too. It now stood as black and burned as the rest of the orphanage. Scoot shook her head once to clear her vision, silently wondering to herself if it had all been a dream until she felt that anger welling up inside of her. He'd left her alone...again.

"Where did you go, little one?" Grandma Blankie's voice called out.

Scootaloo paused, hesitant now to go back and see her, knowing what she did. Was this the real Grandma? Or was it something else? Another monster maybe?

"I've found something you can use...now where are you?" The voice became louder until the pony was standing in the doorway next to her. "Ah...there you are."

Scoot's head snapped around to see that she remained unchanged, except for some odd footwear hanging around her neck and something draped across her back.

"Here you are my dear. This pair of rollerskates belonged to a young colt who was adopted not too long ago. He left them here in case anyone else might want to play with them, bless his little heart." She said, swinging the red and white wheeled shoes off of her neck. "Go on, try them on."

Scootaloo looked at the odd contraptions. Rollerskates? Only old ponies used these anymore, finding a pair in this good of a condition was something highly unlikely these days. After all, her mother had often insisted on Scoot using skates instead of her scooter, always afraid that not having any hooves on the ground would make it easier to crash and injure herself. They could never find a pair that fit though, let alone a good pair.

Hesitantly, Scootaloo sat down and tried them on. By some miracle, they fit perfectly. They didn't rub her ankles uncomfortably, and by some twist of fate, they were the right size exactly.

"Oh thank goodness, they fit. I was hoping to find a pony who could use them. None of the other foals could fit into them, they were all too small for the shoes." Grandma Blankie nodded satisfactorily. "Oh...and I heard that the Weather Ponies are cooking up a mean storm for tonight...so you might want to take this."

Scootaloo watched as she pulled a fairly clean looking blanket off of her back, staring in awe at the design on the fabric. The whole wrap was white, with a rainbow stretched across the middle of it. Beneath the Rainbow was a blue pegasus with a red mane and tail, rearing back on a cloud. The whole thing was extravagantly ornate, not just some blanket that you'd give to anyone. But what was more...

"This is..." Scoot stared in disbelief. "...my..."

How many times as a young foal had her mother wrapped her up in that familiar blanket? The comforting red maned pony who brought the rainbow was her constant nighttime companion, especially when it was really dark and scary out. When the lightning would come and keep her awake, or the wind would bring the monsters to her bedroom window...even though she later learned that it was just a tree branch tapping on the glass.

She had always wanted to be that pony. The brave looking blue Pegasus who made the sky bright and colorful. And then she saw her.

Rainbow Dash.

Her Idol. Her inspiration.

She knew right then and there that she definitely wanted to be like Dash.

Cool, confident, not afraid of anything, fastest in Equestria...Rainbow Dash.

And the blanket had fallen to the wayside, forgotten now that the real rainbow making pony had been found.

Scootaloo knelt down and wrapped herself up in the fabric that she knew all too well, the cotton interior forming around her little body just like it used to. She cried...she knew it. And she didn't care.

"Did you make this...Grandma?" She asked through sobs.

"Why yes dear, I did. I was going to give it to my great granddaughter. She's just turning two summers old this month. But something tells me you should have it. I can always whip up another one lickety split. This old gray mare ain't what she used to be, but she still knows how to make a blanket, by thunder." Grandma Blankie laughed, the bright cheerful sound echoing in the desolate destruction.

It was all too surreal, or it would have been if Scootaloo understood the meaning of the word. So many opposites, so many unnatural things. Was she related to this aging pony before her? How had she received this blanket if it had been meant for someone else? She shook her head. It didn't matter. Still wrapped in the blanket, Scoot scooted close to the old mare and nuzzled up to her, tears in full swing.

"Thank you Grandma Blankie." She choked out, feeling a tender hoof stroke her head gently.

"It's the least I can do for you, my little filly."

Scootaloo snuggled into the aging mare for what felt like some time. She couldn't remember feeling much safer in an even longer time span.

Until she felt gravity catch her and send her tumbling forward. Scootaloo hit the deck head first, adding yet another lump to her growing collection. Rubbing her noggin lightly, Scoot turned around and looked up...

But the old mare had disappeared as if she'd never been there at all. She was still wrapped in the blanket, the rollerskates were still on her feet. And...by some strange occurrence of its own...her lantern was lit. As Scootaloo stood up and balanced herself on the skates...such a different feeling from her two wheeled scooter, she could swear she heard the old mare's laugh echoing quietly through the building, the sounds of many foals wandering around in the darkness.

"You know...that blanket really does suit you."

The voice had Scoot looking around in the dim lamplight as fast as she could maneuver on the odd wheeled shoes, only to find herself staring back at Dream Catcher again.

"And so does this building."

"Where do you keep going? And also...where do you keep coming from?!" Scoot's eyes went wide, seeing the pony standing there. But no, there was something different about him. Something she couldn't quite place.

He cantered easily over to her, looking down at the blanket as he did.

"Aww...how cute. A little rainbow pony. I'll be it's all snuggly wuggly soft and fleecy too, right?"

Was he...mocking her?

"And to think, you ended up here, of all places. I never expected this. What a laugh."

Yes. He was indeed mocking her.

"What's wrong with you?" She asked, her earlier rage coming back. "You let me run off on my own, yeah, my fault, but anyway. Then you show up out of the blue in some cheesy memory flash-back that only happens in like...fairy tales...and now you're back and you think you're just gonna make fun of me?" She went to stomp a hoof in frustration, only to have it slip out from under her as the wheels caught on the burnt out wood. When she'd steadied herself again, she looked back up to find him staring at her straight on, almost muzzle to muzzle. And there were those Stupid Eyes Again!

Wait...his eyes...wasn't the left one gold? She could've sworn that it was, and that the other was blue. But no, his eyes had somehow magically swapped their colors.

"You know, I was thinking about helping you out. After all, this little adventure of yours has been so entertaining thus far. But you want to yell at me? Okay, I can play that game." He half grinned, half scowled at her as he turned flank and walked further into the room.

"So it's a game you want huh?" Scoot asked, moving up to him as close as she could before she pulled the wooden plank out of her bagstrap. "How about some tag?"

"Tag, is it? I think I can keep up with..." Was all he could get out before the plank of wood came crashing across his face. He fell to the ground stunned for a moment, rubbing his muzzle gingerly. The blow had been softened as halfway through the swing, Scootaloo's balance had given out, and she was still recovering.

"Well...if that's the way it's going to be..." He growled, unfurling his wings. They ripped through the bandages, spreading wide...wider than anypony she'd ever seen before, except maybe Princess Celestia's.

"I thought you couldn't open them..." Scoot stared in disbelief.

Dream Catcher swung his head around as he laughed, squaring himself as he brought his stare down at her.

"Just who do you think I am, pony?"

"You're Dream Catcher, aren't you?" She asked, backing up carefully so as not to lose her hoofing again.

He charged at her, wings splayed wide to cut off escaping over the wreckage of the beds, not that Scootaloo could've if she'd tried. Instead, she ducked low, swinging her make-shift bat at his legs. He easily jumped and glided over the strike, but it gave her just enough time to push herself off and make it out the doorway back into the main lobby.

There was a resounding crash as he pushed himself through the doorway, wings wide open coming through the walls.

"You're not going to get away, little pony. Try as you might, I'm faster, stronger and all around better than you are. And you're going to pay for that little bonk on the head back there." His eyes had narrowed, almost to slits. He was definitely angry with her.

"So you might think, Mr. I'm Big and Tough. But ya know what? You don't stand a chance...cuz I learned from the most awesome, coolest pony there is!"

This caught him off guard.

"But I've never taught you anything..." He thought out loud.

"Oh for the love of..." Scootaloo groaned, setting her stance.

'Okay Scoots...this is just like riding my scooter...only with more wheels. Lean forward, push off and flap...you can do this...' She thought, going through the motions as she propelled herself forward.

The idiot was still busy trying to figure out just what she'd meant by that when the plank caught him full on in the skull again. He dropped over as an orange blur shot past him, hitting the ground hard. This time, he didn't move.

Scootaloo rounded a tight corner and came skidding to a stop right next to him, her balance found and speed renewed now that she had command over these...skates.

"You're half right. You didn't teach me anything important. All I learned from you is how messed up this place really is. But I guess I kinda already knew that." She flapped her little wings once, propelling herself towards the door.

"By the way...the coolest pony there is...is still twenty percent cooler than you'll ever be."

With a nod and a rather cocky flip of her tail, Scootaloo rolled out the front door, leaping down the stairs to land lightly on her new wheels. As an after thought, she pulled the blanket off of her back, rolling it up carefully.

"Don't want anything to happen to you." She smiled, packing it away in her empty bag. As she turned around and looked back at the orphanage, she thought she caught a glimpse of Grandma Blankie watching her out of a window on the second floor. Scootaloo waved up at her, but the mare...if she'd been there at all, was gone before Scoot's arm ever made it to the air.

"Thanks Grandma. Turns out these wheels are pretty good." She closed her eyes, even as the world around her began to revert back into the fog-filled Ponyville from before. When she opened them again, she was met head long...

By those same idiotic eyes...

"Jeeze...you back for more? I'll whack you again, I will!" Scoot threatened, brandishing the plank in front of her again.

"Woah woah there Scooterdoo! It's me, Dream Catcher!"

Sure enough, when she looked closer, his wings were still bandaged, and his left eye was the gold one again...and...and...

"Are you ever gonna get my name right?" She fumed. "I oughta whack you anyway! Maybe it'll knock some sense into that thick head of yours!"

The odd-eyed pony backed up, an unsure look in his eyes.

"Please don't...I promise I didn't do anything..." He almost visibly cowered in front of her.

"Oh? Then why did you leave me there alone? You showed up for a minute and then you were gone again...and then you come back and try to beat me up? I'll say you did something! And how the hay did you get your eyes to change colors?!"

He seemed to snap out of it at that.

"That wasn't me..." His ears dropped. "Well...it was, but it wasn't. See..."

"No, I don't see! I don't get it!" She shouted, all the happy feelings from moments ago gone. The anger had returned and now here was the source of her irritation playing weak, scared and dumb!

Well...maybe not playing dumb...

"I've been chased around by monsters, talked to the ghost of an old mare...had you nearly beat me into the ground...and you want to say that you didn't do anything? That's right. You DIDN'T do anything. You weren't there! Just like..."

Something clicked in the back of Scoot's mind...and somewhere in Ponyville...another picture fell off the wall.

Welcome Home

~Fact or Fiction: Can the intangible mental representations of our nightmares actually prove to be physically harmful? This is still studied by ponies to this day as one can never be sure if a nightmare is actually the mind itself helping us relieve stress or if it is helping us figure out what the stressful things in our lives are.

While nightmares surely are the cause of restless sleeping or insomnia, both of which can be physically harmful; do they not also have the benefit of being the truest form of release when it comes to bottled up fear and emotion, as unbridled as they are in their complex yet at the same time simple nature?

-An excerpt from the Book of Fillysophical Studies, by: Dr. Rhindquarters

===D.W.===

For an imperceptible moment, Scootaloo's mind opened up to a brief flash of an image as it lit her memory with the flame of anger she'd just unleashed upon Dream Catcher.

She sat alone in her room, waiting for something. No...SomePony. As she heard hoofsteps coming up the stairs, she bolted upright, feeling elated, though she couldn't remember why. Whoever she had been waiting for though must've come home.

For some reason, she bolted straight up, grabbing her scooter and helmet. She vaguely remembered something about wanting to ride it, but didn't she do that every day? The little filly looked down at the scooter though, and felt trepidation at the idea.

She was...afraid to get on?

That, like many other things so far, didn't make any sense.

As the door opened, Scootaloo looked up to see who it was, but there was nopony there. The door, having apparently opened by itself...swung wider until it could swing no further, silently tapping against the wall of her room.

Nopony had come.

Scootaloo snapped out of the vague memory, noting that at some point, she'd sat down. She was beginning to feel a dampness all over as she looked up to the fog covered sky. It began with a few drops here and there, a slight chill wind picking up. But over the course of a few minutes, the light drizzle had become a downpour that had soaked both ponies to the bone. The lanterns were fairing all right, given they had been enclosed, but eventually, everything Scootaloo and Dream Catcher had in their saddlebags had been drenched.

Fortunately as they both got up and continued to make their way through the town, the wind had cleared enough of the fog away that it had become that much easier, as they could now see for at least two blocks versus the short few feet they had been able to observe before. It was still just as dark out, but now they could move without fear of being crept up on by the boiling ponies or the fillies, neither of which Dream Catcher seemed to have seen.

No matter their fortune though...Scoot was still miserable. Dream Catcher was back, for better or worse, she was water logged and cold, her blanket was too wet to protect her from the rain anymore, there were no open buildings in sight...and the only clue she had to go on was this crazy daydream and something at Sugar Cube Corner.

Well, there were those things that the Dream Catcher who Wasn't Dream Catcher had said that were still bugging her...and that blank spot in her memory right before it had started raining...What had she just been about to say to the crazy-eyed pony? Did that daydream even make any sense?

Scoot tossed the idea back and forth in her head as they continued on, trying to figure out exactly what it was that she was going to shout at the strange pony next to her. She'd been so angry, so certain that she wanted to say it, but for the life of her, she just couldn't remember what it had been.

"Say, Scootaloo..." Dream Catcher began, eliciting a groan from the filly.

"What is it?"

"I'm truly sorry about before." He swung his head around, flipping his mane around behind his neck and out of his eyes. "I didn't mean to let you go off on your own, really. There was just..." He paused for a moment, eyes fluttering closed..."Something that told me to let you try this for yourself. I realize now that it was wrong of me to let that happen."

She shrugged and flapped her wings again, carrying her momentum on the skates easily.

"Whatever. Let's just get to the Corner so I can find Pinkie Pie. She'll know what's going on and where everypony is. She always does."

"What do you think this...Pinkie Pie will be able to tell you?" He asked.

"Probably nothing useful, except where all the other ponies are. After that, I'll find the others and then I'll know for real what's happened." Scootaloo knew it was highly unlikely that Pinkie was still at the Corner, given the things she'd seen so far...but even though it was a long shot, she did still have the key with the tag on it. If nothing else, that warranted investigation.

"You know, we could probably find some more useful tools there too. I'll need a new box of matches, now that mine are soaked. This could actually be beneficial." He seemed to finally agree with her.

"Besides that, didn't you say you were hungry before?" She asked. "I can't think of a better place to eat than Sugar Cube Corner. All of those cakes and pies..."

There was an audible rumbling as Dream Catcher's stomach left out its opinion of the destination.

For a moment, Scootaloo could feel her barely contained anger at the pony next to her ebbing away again. She almost felt as though she was walking with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle in that instant, no matter how much her eyes told her different.

Okay. She did owe him some kind of credit. Without the things he'd packed for her, his 'evil twin' probably would've beat her to a pulp. She might've been attacked without warning if that broken music box of his hadn't left out such an obnoxious noise every time some monster was near. Even the lantern had proven useful. Did it all quite make up for his mistakes, or that she was only here because he'd been in her way when she crashed into him?

Not really. But at least she didn't feel as angry at him now. Just moderately frustrated.

"Hey, look. There it is." Dream pointed out down the street.

Not too far off on the left side of the road, there was an old, worn out sign hanging from the side of a building that didn't look anything like what Scoot remembered the Corner to be. It was still a tall, towering building with a steeped roof. There were trellised windows to the front of the store. Twin doors sat as the opening to the building above a single wide swinging door...

But it was orange. And the rooftop didn't look like it was made of gingerbread and icing anymore. It was just so...plain. Nothing about it outside of the Cupcake on the sign and the high roof that now lacked the cake and candle toppers set it apart from anything else. It looked like just another building in this Celestia-forsaken place.

"What is going on? That's not Sugar Cube Corner." Scoot protested.

Dream Catcher looked on, unsure of his partner's plea.

"That's the place all right." He insisted.

"But...where's the decorations? The fake gingerbread, the cake on top of the building?"

"Nevermind that now. Let's just get inside and out of this rain. We can figure out what we're going to do next once we're dry." Dream moved on, urging Scootaloo to follow.

She stood there only a moment longer before venturing after him, shaking her head in disbelief while she withdrew the key from her bag. It had fit the lock perfectly and thankfully without any trouble. The two pushed open the doors and stepped inside. Here too, things were too far out of place for Scoot's liking. Nothing looked the same.

The display cases were in the wrong spot, there was no door to the kitchen visible, the staircase to Pinkie Pie's house upstairs was in opposite side of the building from where it should have been. Everything was just wrong.

"Pinkie Pie?" Scoot called out, the building deathly silent else wise except for the rain beating upon its roof. "Are you here? Mr. Cakes? Mrs. Cakes?"

There came no reply from the uninhabited building.

Scoot sighed, resigning herself to the fact that everyone she knew might not be here. She hadn't seen a familiar face at all since she'd gotten to this crazy, mixed up world. Why would that change now? There was no one here at all.

Scootaloo felt herself chill a bit inside. Everything was different now. There was no Pinkie Pie, no Rainbow Dash...nopony. She could feel herself collapse into a small pile on the floor, not really mentally registering it as she curled up into a shaking little ball of orange and purple fur. It didn't even occur to her that Dream Catcher had come over and was now lying next to her, nuzzling her head gently. She just wanted to sleep it off like it was a bad dream. When she woke up, everything would be fine and she'd be back at home, sitting in her bed, scolding herself for believing such an impossible nightmare had been real.

But sleep never came. She tried over and over again, shutting out the world around her as much as she could. No matter how hard she tried though, she couldn't fall asleep. Which meant she'd never wake up.

"We're never gonna get out of here, are we Dream?" She asked after a bit.

The older pony lifted his head from hers, looking down at her with guilt written on his face.

"Don't you worry now, Scootaloo. I'll get you home. Don't you worry about a thing." He replied softly, putting an arm around her. "It's my fault you're in this mess, so I'll take care of everything."

Scoot closed her eyes again, nuzzling up to that crazy-eyed dolt she wasn't entirely sure she liked. But right now, it was the most comforting thing in the world.

And then it hit her.

She was falling again.

"No..." She squeaked out, feeling her legs fly out from under her as the floor vanished and the abyss from the kitchen returned once more. The ponies in cages were rocketing up around her just like before and the hazy red light was illuminating everything again. She could hear the poor tortured things crying out from their cages, could see them reaching out to her.

But it was different this time. They were much closer. The cages were open...and each was reaching like they were trying to pull her in.

"No!" Scootaloo cried, jerking and twisting away from them mid-air, using her little wings to propel herself one way or the other, feeling their hooves rake across her body as they each tried to trap her inside their cages.

"Come back Scootaloo...it's not safe out there..." a haunting voice echoed from the darkness. "We'll take care of you, don't you worry..."

"Stay away from me!"

"Come home, Scootaloo."

"Go back to your room, my dear..."

"No! I won't go back!"

There was a sudden jerk, and Scootaloo felt herself wrenched from the air by her ears. She squirmed as hard as she could, but whatever it was that had a hold of her wasn't letting go. She struggled to see, only to find herself in the grip of a blank faced pony as it pulled her into its cage, locking the door.

"Let me out!" She screamed at it. "Let me out, please! I don't want to stay here!"

"No my dear little Scootaloo...you'll be safe here. They can't get you now..." The pony crept closer, leaning down to her.

Scoot reached for the plank of wood, swinging it wildly.

"Stay back! I want to go back outside! You can't keep me trapped in here!"

There was a dull thud as the wooden weapon connected with the pony monster. The thing collapsed to the cage floor as all around, more cages began to creep closer.

"She hit her! How could that child be so cruel? She was only trying to protect her!"

"That is no way to treat someone who's only looking out for you, young filly!"

"Have you no manners child?"

"I just want to go home..." Scoot broke down and began to sob, faceless ponies from all sides closing in as they reached out to her from their own cages.

"You need to be punished!"

"Yes, it's only fitting! Throw her to them, I say!"

"Let's be rid of this ill-behaved foal while we can! She has no manners, no compassion for helping hooves!"

"What do you mean?" Scootaloo cried back at them.

All of the ponies pointed down in unison, prompting Scoot to follow their direction. She looked down to see a seething mass of boiling ponies below her, intermixed with the bloated fillies from the nightmare alleyway.

"No! I'll behave! I promise! I didn't do anything bad!" She screamed, jumping up before losing her footing as the wheels on her rollerskates slipped off of the bars of the cage bottom. There was a sharp crack, and Scoot's eyes filled with stars as she fell to the cage floor, her head throbbing.

"That's a good filly. Just like we raised you to be..." The blank-faced mare in the cage with her cooed, gripping her ears again and yanking hard. So hard that Scootaloo thought her neck was going to break. "No more telling others lies now, you hear?"

"Okay...okay..." She whimpered pitifully, trying to nod past the pain. "I promise...I really like staying here with you, it's the truth..."

Harder and harder the caged pony yanked until at last, she let go, leaving Scoot with very sore ears and a pinch in her neck that just wouldn't go away. As she stared up at the monster, it closed in, leaning down to nuzzle Scootaloo gently. As their noses touched, Scoot's world went black.

===D.W.===

Scootaloo opened her eyes to find Dream Catcher staring down at her again. It was odd, how used to that occurrence she was becoming. She made to sit up, however a sharp pain in her head brought her crashing back to the wooden floor.

Wood...

She was back in the messed up Sugar Cube Corner.

"What happened?" She asked through gritted teeth, reaching up to find a rather large lump on the back of her head.

"Now is not the time, Scootaloo...get up! Quick!" Dream Catcher urged, a roaring sound echoing through the building.

That got her going. Pushing the pain away, Scootaloo stood up and balanced herself on her skates, her vision still swimming a bit. She couldn't quite get her bearings straight, but they were somewhere near the staircase in the building...and there was a hulking shadow coming up from a hole about halfway up the stairs.

It...Looked like a pony...or something close to it. But it was seriously distorted if it was one. There were no hooves...only long, wicked looking claws. Sickening yellow fangs had erupted out of its fused-shut mouth, holes along where it should have opened up emitting a foul smelling black smoke that matched its body color. The ears had been elongated and pulled back, sewn by what looked like barbed wire into its spine, and if it had a lower half...it was all but invisible in the hole in the stairs.

The ears...

Scoot's mind flashed back for a split second to the Caged Pony she'd just left in her nightmare...

The creature roared, catching her attention again as it writhed and twisted, pulling itself further and further out of the hole towards them, its hindquarters never appearing as its body stretched into a long black trail that didn't seem to have an end. Scoot went to pull the wooden plank from her bag...only to find it missing as her gaze returned back to the hellish creature before her.

In one quick movement, it nearly halved the distance between itself and the ponies, swiping out with its claws. Dream Catcher and Scootaloo dove in different directions, just in time for the beast to leave three deep gouges in the wooden floor where they had been standing only seconds ago.

"Stay back Scootaloo, I'll take care of this thing!" Dream Catcher called out, racing towards the thing in the hole with what appeared to be a sheet of glass, no doubt pried from one of the display case doors. He swung it with all his might, breaking it over the creature's head and the weapon shattered into a million pieces.

Not before the monster had time to grab hold of Dream though. He struggled in its grip as the black pony beast brought him to its face. With something akin to a hungry look at Scootaloo, the monster withdrew, quick as lightning back into its hole, taking Dream Catcher with.

"Wait! Come back you ugly moron!" She called after it, racing towards the hole. But the monster didn't return, and there was no sign of the Pegasus pony either. As she stood there, the hole in the stairs seemed to close itself up, the lost beams slowly phasing into existence.

"No!" She cried out again. "No No No! Why do you keep disappearing, Dream Catcher? You useless, selfish, idiotic excuse for a pony!"

She knew half of that wasn't true, but she needed to vent, tears of frustration building up until they wouldn't be held back anymore.

Scootaloo was alone again. And in that solitude, found herself mumbling. Incomprehensible things at first...

"Don't pull so hard! Please! I promise I'll stay upstairs in my room..." She pleaded with the memory image of a faceless mare, obviously displeased that she was outside playing on her scooter...

"No...I'm happy there Miss. They're really nice to me...I get to play with my friends a lot..." That one brought a sour taste to her mouth as she spit it out, unable to stomach something that naturally felt so much like a lie. She didn't like to lie to the caseworker. Somehow, she felt the quiet pony always knew.

"I love you..." Yet another lie... When would it ever stop? Why couldn't she just go back to the...

It took her a long while before the strange memories and awful emotions finally let her go, a cold, dark feeling seating itself in her heart. As she stood up, Scootaloo brushed the last of her tears from her eyes, setting herself in a self-righteous rage.

She had every right to be angry. Nothing had gone right since she'd arrived here. She didn't have Dream Catcher. She didn't have her weapon anymore. The one pony that had shown her kindness was gone, and while she was thankful for the gift, she was stuck using these stupid roller skates that she was still having a hard time with. This place was bringing up some powerfully wicked memories she didn't even remember she had.

Go back to the What? Who did she love? Why wasn't she allowed outside? Scootaloo cracked her memory until things began to add up for once, a full and complete memory finally protruded from the darkness of her thoughts.

"Scootaloo, what happened?" Her friend from the next bed over asked.

"I couldn't stand it! They never let me outside...I never got to come see you guys...and whenever I didn't go back to my room, they made me go to bed without eating, even if it was only breakfast! That meant I didn't get lunch or dinner either!"

"So what did you do?"

Scoot shied away at the question, not sure she wanted to answer.

"I heard she clubbed the lady upside the head with a bat." Another chimed in from the dark bunk hall. "Talk about wicked. You are one awesome filly, Scootaloo."

"Thanks, I guess."

"Either way, it's good to have you back. I hope nopony ever comes to take you away from us again." Her friend reached out to give her a hug before rolling back over in her own bed.

"Yeah. Me too." Scoot replied.

It was all so...unfair.

That was the word for it, she decided.

This whole place was unfair.

There had been answers for her here at the Corner, though the more she thought about it...the more she wished she hadn't remembered.

And now...this stupid place had taken away the only company she'd had; even if it was partially regrettable company in the after thought. She had to admit as she stood there though...he had started to grow on her.

She shook her head clear of those thoughts. This wasn't a time for sympathy. It wasn't a time to be sad. Scootaloo reached deep down into that seething pit that had been forming over her stay here and latched onto the rage that had been growing. It was going to be her weapon now. She hated this place. She hated everything about it. Scoot wasn't sure she'd ever hated anything so much before.

"Scootaloo..."

A voice snapped her from her angered state, drawing her attention up the stairs from where it had echoed.

"Come here, little one..."

It was the echoing voice of a caged pony.

There wasn't much choice. With steeled resolve, Scoot went around the Not-Corner, looking for something, anything she could use as a physical weapon, coming up with only a metal table leg that had taken some coaxing to pry free from the wrecked furniture.

"Nowhere to go but up." She thought aloud, reassuring herself.

She slowly climbed the stairs, taking her time as the wheels on her skates made it hard to make any quick progress, until she stood on the top landing, staring down into a long hallway. It was about as dark as the rest of the building had been, and just as quiet save for the rain that seemed to be getting louder as the storm continued.

Out of four doorways in the hall, two of them were locked. Trying the first open door, Scootaloo looked inside to the see the floor ended at the doorway and dropped off a couple of hooves down into a room full of tiny beds stretched left to right along one wall. And there, on one bed...was the same blanket she was carrying in her bag.

No sooner had she spotted it did another bright flash fill her vision...and she found herself watching from above...

"Well Scootaloo, this one seems nice. Why don't you give it a try?"

"No."

"Yeah, we won't let her go either." Her friend from the next bunk stood at her side, little wings flaring angrily.

"I like it here. I've got all my friends, a nice place to sleep, and I can do whatever I want, when I want. Why would I want to give that all up to go live a lie? I'm done lying, especially after that first time around. Nope, gonna stay here now. Forget it Miss."

The mare sighed, closing a file folder as she left the room. Scootaloo and her friend heard hushed voices from the next room over as the mare explained the situation.

"You must forgive her for being hesitant. The last time she came back from a foster home, the poor thing had suffered both abuse and malnutrition. It's partially my fault for not having seen it sooner...so I can't really blame her for not wanting to leave the one place she feels is safe. Maybe if you come by a few times a week and she gets to know you...it won't be so bad?"

"Pfft. I doubt it." Scoot scoffed and her friend just outright laughed.

Scootaloo shook her head as she cleared the vision away, now understanding what Not-Dream Catcher had meant back in the orphanage...

'How fitting that you end up here, of all places!' His voice echoed in her mind.

She remembered. Scoot had lived in the same orphanage she'd just come from when she was younger. She used to spend her days here at the Corner; though it had never looked like this at all; laughing away her cares with her friends.

One by one though, they were all adopted and taken away.

Until at last, Scootaloo was all that was left from her circle of friends, visiting the corner alone until she'd met Sweetie Belle.

That's what this weirdo Ponyville was doing. It was making her remember. Bringing to light things she had tried so hard to forget. It had brought back the families...and had taken her friend away...just like before. Scoot's mind wrapped around that single thought, pushing all else from her head.

She had to get out of here.

The room behind the door she just opened had reappeared as an empty, normal looking space aside from some old storage boxes and shelves. The floor had returned to where it should've been, and nothing really looked out of place. She glanced around quickly to make sure that nothing else of importance was inside before shutting the door.

All that remained was the other unlocked passageway. As she crept closer to it and opened the seemingly plain door, her eyes met with yet another improbability.

Another hallway extended out from behind the door, going far into a seemingly endless black tunnel at the other end. That shouldn't have been possible; this was the corner room of the second floor. There was no way that this tunnel should have been there.

Scootaloo threw the thought aside, not really caring to question the made up laws of reality in this world anymore. She'd had enough and there wasn't going to be any stopping her now.

Squaring herself off, Scoot flapped her wings to get herself going, rolling down into the darkness of the tunnel. All sound but the wheels of her skates reverberating off the walls died off, the drumming of the rain giving way to silence as she continued further, keeping an eye out for anything that looked like a way out.

Suddenly, there was movement in the darkness. Quickly, Scoot ducked down just in time to see a flat black sickle come cutting through the air where her head had been only a split second before. Smoke began to cloud what little vision she had in the dark tunnel as the pony monster from the stairs appeared out of the wall ahead of her, its body still linked to the flat surface.

"You again?!" She shouted angrily, reaching around to grip the table leg in her teeth, swinging it at the creature as she flapped her wings harder. As she powered past the monster, the table leg struck something solid, rattling her little teeth and jarring her neck. Thankfully, she'd made it by unscathed...

Only to have another sickle come from the other wall. It grazed her flank, cutting just deep enough to draw blood, eliciting a yelp of pain from the little filly. She dropped the pipe and heard it fall to the ground with a loud clang, her only defense gone again. Skidding to a stop, she contemplated going back after it when the monster's head appeared out of the left wall again, much closer to her than the pipe was. It looked down at the pipe, then back at her, its ears now freed from its spine, twitching like they were irritated.

"Okay then, let's play." She growled, setting her skates and her balance, her wings rocketing her back up the tunnel towards her weapon. The monster saw her coming, ducking back into the wall. It reappeared on the right wall, swinging out another scythe at her. Scoot leaped over the incoming blade, landing with a wince as her cut from before sent pain shooting through her side.

It didn't matter though. The table leg was laying right there. She reached down to scoop it up...

And before she knew what hit her, the monster came flying out of the wall once more, slamming her into the other side of the tunnel full force. It knocked the wind out of her and she was almost sure she felt something break, but her mind was driving her now. It pushed the pain aside as she picked up her make-shift weapon, bringing it down on the monster's head with a dull thwack.

Again and again, she pounded the beast with her table leg pipe until it moved no more, merely twitching in a hulking mass on the floor of the tunnel.

"That..." She hissed angrily..."is for Dream Catcher...you jerk."

When the monster still didn't move after a bit, Scootaloo collapsed back against the tunnel wall, reaching into her bag to pull out the roll of bandages Dream had packed. She looked down at her flank, seeing her one wing folded awkwardly against a good sized slice along her side.

"Great..." She moaned, trying to slow her breathing down as she watched a trail of her own blood trace its way through her fur before gathering on the floor of the enclosed space. It hurt, and it almost brought tears to her eyes as she tried her best to patch up the cut...

But her wing throbbed now that she saw it. It was definitely dislocated, if not broken in at least one place. Any tears that were threatening before came on in full now as she tried as best as she could to put it into what looked like a normal position. She was no doctor, and wasn't sure at all what she was doing. She only hoped that as she worked past the fire that lanced from her wing up to her skull that she was doing it right. With a quick jerk, a decently loud pop, and one high pitched and rather long wail of pain, Scoot could feel the throbbing lessening, so with tender touches here and there, she set to wrapping her injured wing.

After it had been bandaged up, she took a few minutes to loose what was left of the waterworks, stowing the left over bandages back in her bag. She got her hooves back under her and gingerly put her table leg into the loose strap where the plank of wood had been before testing her other wing. That one still worked fine, once she could get past the fact that whenever she moved it, her other wing wanted to move too. It looked as if she'd be rolling along without help from them for a while.

It took her the better part of what seemed like half an hour at least, but finally, Scootaloo could see a light source up ahead at the end of the tunnel. Nothing else had reached out to grab at her, and there'd been no doorways or other paths leading out that she had noticed. At the end of the tunnel, she found that she could see up to a bright light burning white above...and down to a red light shimmering below. Each was at the end of a flight of stairs, much like a fire-escape like the one's she'd seen on buildings in books about the big cities. They wrapped around themselves like snakes, coiling up and down simultaneously from the platform at the end of the tunnel.

The choice was easy.

Scoot took off her skates, they'd only be a hindrance here. She tied their laces together, slinging them around her neck like Grandma Blankie had done, and began her descent downward. After all, she thought, that red light seemed to be the source of her troubles. It was almost everywhere that there had been anything happening. Why not find out exactly what it was?

But there was a nagging at the back of her mind. As much as she tried to avoid listening to it, something was calling out to her from the white light above. Something that felt safe and warm, in contrast to the obvious darkness awaiting below.

Sure, it had to be a trap. Nothing was ever that easy, especially here in this weird, mixed up Ponyville. But the further and further she went down, the more she wanted to go back up.

Not out of fear.

Not because it seemed to be the right choice.

But because something about that light was calling to her.

Something very familiar.

Against her better judgment...

'Wow...', she thought. 'If my better judgment is telling me to go to the scary stuff, I must really be nuts...'

Scootaloo turned around and began to climb back up towards the light. It made her angry to be delayed at getting out of this place...but who knew? Maybe the light was the right choice for once. Besides...it seemed so inviting. Somehow, it just felt...

Safe...

She could almost reach out and touch it now...

It was right there...

And another one of those accursed black staircase ponies appeared, swinging its deadly claws at her, wailing through the holes in its sealed mouth.

Scootaloo ducked the first swipe, dodged around the second swipe, turned and kicked the monster in its chest, wincing in pain as the cut in her side stretched and cracked open again underneath the bandages. The black pony monster swayed precariously before regaining itself. It didn't move again, however. As Scootaloo stood there trying to block out the throbbing, she waited for it to strike, but it didn't. It almost looked frozen in place now.

Curious, though carefully, she took a step forward up the staircase...

And the shadow pony suddenly came to life again, spitting smoke and raging at her.

She lifted her hoof off the stair she'd set it on...

And the monster froze again.

It didn't want her to go up.

It wouldn't touch her if she didn't try, but it wasn't going to let her pass.

There was definitely something up there she wanted to know about now. Thinking quickly, Scootaloo sat back, pulling what was left of the lamp oil out of her bag, now that the lamp had been ever so kindly smashed thanks to the shadow pony in the tunnel, spraying the creature with the last contents of the bottle. It thankfully didn't move, continuing to hold its sentinel style posture as she withdrew the table leg from the strap, scraping its bent, jagged edge along the stairs beneath her to test her theory.

The end of the leg sparked wildly as metal grated on metal.

Perfect.

With a quick stroke, Scoot sparked the lamp oil with the table leg, setting the creature before her aflame. It became animated again, writhing in agony as it burned alive until it sunk back into the staircase. With a smirk of satisfaction, Scoot tossed the empty oil bottle away and reslung her table leg, stepping up into the light beyond where the monster had been guarding.

===D.W.===

It was bright. Too bright to see anything.

She thought she felt a slight breeze ruffle the feathers of her good wing...

The light seemed to be dying off, the sound of trees blowing in the wind catching her ears.

As her eyes adjusted, Scootaloo looked around in awe.

Nothing had changed. Everything was lying right where she'd left it. Her school bag was next to the door, books for the next day's lesson packed and ready to go. Her bed was made and a baseball cap was left hanging from the bedpost.

And there, on her desk was a hoof-drawn portrait of the pony she admired the most.

Rainbow Dash.

Scoot looked around at her bedroom with something akin to relief, feeling herself relax a bit.

She was home.

Enter the Demon

~Just when you think you understand how the mind works, something throws a wrench in the works and you're left pondering for hours on end: Will the pieces of the puzzle ever fit together?

-An excerpt from the Book of Fillysophical Studies, by: Dr. Rhindquarters

===D.W.===

Scootaloo flopped down on her soft bed with a sigh, ignoring the complaint that her side and wing gave out when she landed. It felt good to lie down on something so familiar. She had to admit that while it had taken forever, and now that she could remember the truth; the last family to adopt her had been really outgoing and generous. She actually liked this one, and had in fact taken to calling the nice mare 'mother', though she couldn't quite call the stallion her father, no matter how hard he tried to act like it.

The sounds of clanking pots and pans rose from the kitchen as her 'mom' busied herself making dinner. It was such an odd sound at first compared to the deafening silence of the strange Ponyville that Scoot found herself questioning the validity of it. But it made no matter. She was here, her mom was downstairs. It had been a long, arduous trip, but thank Celestia it was over.

"Scootaloo dear, why don't you come downstairs? Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom will be over for dinner soon. Do you want to get the living room cleaned up so you can all set your sleeping bags up a while?" A voice called up.

A sleep over? She hadn't remembered anything about that. Then again, it didn't matter. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were never gonna believe this story. She'd been so angry and frustrated with that crazy mixed up Ponyville that she'd nearly almost believed that she'd never see them again.

"Yeah! I'm coming!" She shouted back happily.

And her side twinged again as her lungs pushed out when she breathed in.

The injuries! How was she going to explain that to her mom? Better yet...she needed to tell her about it. The sleep over could wait. Scoot wasn't sure where to begin, but she knew she had to.

"Mom, could you come here quick?" She asked, opening the door to her room.

"Sure thing honey. One minute."

Scootaloo sighed and rubbed her head, the goose-egg still there as well. Boy if she ever saw that Dream Catcher again, she was gonna...

But no. The monster had got him.

Her heart sank at that little notion. Sure, he hadn't been anything Scoot would dare call close to a friend intentionally. But he had seemed genuinely concerned for her safety. He took on that staircase monster for her.

She'd just have to do her best to remember the pony in a good light. For that matter, she was still wearing the saddlebag he gave her, and the music box, broken though it might be, was still in there. And so was the blanket.

That thought got her mind going. Scootaloo began tearing her room apart. Surely, if she had the blanket with her now, it wouldn't be anywhere in her room. She opened up dresser drawers, looked under her bed, opened up her closet.

It wasn't there.

That in itself kind of unnerved her again. If it wasn't here, that would mean that she never got it in the first place. Had she somehow altered time? The effort of thinking about the ramifications of that made her head hurt all over again.

No. It was over and done with. She was back home. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were on their way over for a sleep over.

Right?

For the first time since she'd arrived back home, Scootaloo really started to take a good look around her. Sure, her bedroom seemed the same. She'd just ripped it apart. Everything was where it should have been. Her scooter and helmet were gone, but they wouldn't be there naturally. They were probably still outside lying in the alleyway from when she hit Dream Catcher.

Come to think of it, they hadn't been there when she'd woke up, so maybe somepony came along and took them. But that didn't make any sense either. She'd have seen said pony...or at least been woken up by them. Had Dream Catcher done something with them?

There were the sound of hoofsteps coming up the staircase. Her mom would help her figure this out. When she knocked on the door, Scootaloo ran over to open it, ignorant of the grinding melody beginning to emit from her saddlebag...

Only to find herself looking at the black Pegasus pony who Wasn't Dream Catcher. His muzzle still bore a mark from where she'd clobbered him good with the plank of wood.

"What did you want to talk about, my dear?" He asked, his voice mimicking her mothers so well.

"You!"

Dream Catcher who wasn't Dream Catcher laughed hard and loud.

"What, you thought your little adventure was over? You've gotta be kidding me!" He dropped his false-tone, his voice coming back clear as day as his own. "You're not done yet, little Scootaloo. You've still got a lot to learn about the way things work here if you honestly thought you had come home."

Lightning quick, his hoof shot out and smacked her across the face, sending her flying across the room.

"That was for earlier."

Scootaloo hit the floor, sliding into the wall by her bed. She slowly sat up, rubbing her muzzle as she looked up at him.

"So where's your better half? Did he really get eaten by a monster? Or was that another one of your bad tricks?" She scowled hard at him.

"My friend Dreamy? Oh, I can safely assure that you won't be seeing him again, rest assured." The pony's eyes glimmered with a sick joy at those words. "I've put his meddling to rest. And now, since you're so close to it...I might as well put you to bed too."

"Really? Lame, pony. Lame." Scoot smirked, pulling out her table leg pipe. "You don't know when to quit, do you?"

"I've never been one to know my own limits." He remarked casually, careful not to take his eyes off her. "I find that limitations are so cliché. Why put yourself in a bind by being constricted by simple things such as physicality...when you can have the powers of a God and more at your disposal?"

Scoot laughed.

"You don't look like a god...and you're pretty solid if both of us can hit each other. So what's say we get down to it then, huh?" She asked, removing the skates from around her neck so they didn't cause her any further damage by swinging wildly around. With determination firing up inside, Scoot charged at him head long.

Not Dream Catcher didn't even bother to duck out of the way. He merely lifted his front hooves and brought them together with a loud clack.

Scoot screeched to a halt as the room around her dropped into shadows instantly. Already, various plumes of smoke had begun to rise from the walls in different places, a scythe or two visible where the monsters were trying to come through. She could count between smoke clouds and sickles five of the wall ponies, on top of Fake Dream Catcher himself. Those were odds she knew she couldn't handle.

"What's the matter child? Afraid of the monsters in the dark?" He chuckled.

"What about you? Afraid to take on one little filly by yourself?" She shot back angrily.

He shrugged.

"I prefer not to get my hooves dirty if I can help it. After all, there is a certain satisfaction in seeing your job done for you by ponies who are more than willing."

"Willing or forced?" She asked.

"Willing, forced, free workers, slave laborers...all the same thing if you ask me." He grinned.

This pony was making her sick.

"I'll wipe that smug look off your face!"

"Oooo...big words from such a small...drastically outnumbered pony."

He had a point there. One Scootaloo was angry to admit. She began to look around for any means of escape. He stood in front of the door still, blocking that way. Quickly, she jumped up onto her bed and looked out the window.

Her whole house sat precariously perched atop a massive stone column amidst a black sea of nothing. She was trapped. Even if she could get past him, there'd be no where to run. She had to think quick.

"Okay...okay. You want me so bad...why not just fight me, pony to pony? If you're so tough, you're sure to beat me." She spoke, trying an old ploy that Rainbow Dash had tried on her once as she returned to the floor. Granted, Rainbow had been nicer about it, and it was just a race...not a fight for her life.

"You think me weak, little filly? I assure you that our last meeting was nothing more than a fluke."

Yes. It was working.

"Yeah. I do. I beat you once, I can do it again. No problem." She brandished her weapon like a sword, swinging it back and forth before striking a pose.

Not Dream Catcher's eye twitched ever so slightly. She was definitely getting to him.

"And what, pray tell, do you think that flimsy little stick of yours is going to do? You're going to have a hard time hitting me with it...injured as you are." He noted with no small amount of sick pleasure in his voice.

"I don't need to be at one-hundred percent to whup your flank! Weakling, weakling, weak little pony." She taunted. "Gotta have someone else fight his fights cuz he lost to a little filly."

He stomped a hoof, and immediately the monsters recoiled back into the walls.

"Very well then. Let's see what you've got. I'll even give you the first strike." He mocked, pointing to the side of his face where she'd hit him before.

Scoot nodded.

"All right. Here it comes!" She yelled past the pipe, winding back as she ran for him. Instead of whacking him in the head though, Scootaloo feinted left, prepared to swing...and then dove between his front legs. She swung hard, taking him out at the knees. His backside hit the floor as his rear legs gave out, a look of shock washing over his face.

"Oh Why You Little Brat!" He grumbled, striking out with a fore-hoof.

Scoot dodged it easy enough, having already cleared some space between them as she swung again, catching him on the knuckle. He winced and withdrew his foreleg back, getting his legs under himself again. But Scoot wasn't done there. She came back around, clubbing him over the backside, causing him to fall off his back hooves in pain again.

This pony was slow. Too slow for her. He'd taken her by surprise the first time, but not again.

With a dull thwack, her weapon connected with the back of his head, dropping the pony. He was out cold once more.

"That is what you get for messing with the best!" She shouted at him...before thinking it over. "Well, Second Best anyway." She nodded at that.

As she stood there, the darkness receded from her room, returning it to its state as it had been before the dolt of a pony dared to set hoof inside. Placing her pipe on her bed, she went out into the hallway, stepping on him with a little bit of extra pressure as she crossed, before she latched onto his tail, slowly but surely dragging him out of her room. With the unconscious pony now resting on the landing atop the stairs, Scootaloo went back inside and locked her door. She was safe for the moment at least.

She crawled back onto her bed to look out her window, finding that while the black abyss was gone, Ponyville and the surrounding countryside was still covered in fog. But at least from this angle, it looked decently enough like the Ponyville she was familiar with.

It was time to get moving again. Carefully unhitching her saddlebag, Scoot undid the broken lantern and the pole from it and tossed them aside. They would be of no further use for the moment. The wooden pole wasn't even strong enough to be used as a weapon itself.

Rummaging around inside the bag, she undid the bandage on her side and put new wrappings on it, even though it was screaming at her every step of the way. But her mother had always said that if you didn't keep a cut clean, it would get infected. That wasn't something she was willing to test at the moment. With that done, Scoot went around and collected some things that she thought might prove useful.

A coat, her umbrella hat and her rain boots for if it started raining again. A scarf too, just in case. The candle and holder from her nightstand, and some matches she'd snuck from her mom a while ago. The spare key to the house, in case she had to come back. And lastly, her Cutie Mark Crusaders cape...for good luck. She held up the red fabric, eying the yellow insignia. Just holding it somehow made her feel better.

With care, she packed the boots in first, followed by her coat, hat and scarf. With a bit of pushing, she fit the blanket and the cape inside. Then, she placed the music box on top, and adding a bit of string, put the key on a make-shift necklace around her neck. Once everything was secured, she strapped the pack back on, feeling the sheer difference in weight as its straps squeezed against the muscles under her injured wing. It shifted around uncomfortably at first until it settled into place.

Nodding satisfactorily, Scootaloo scooped up the skates and slung them over her neck with the key.

But now that she was packed and ready...she felt the urge to stay put. She'd been so fired up to get going again, but now it felt like she wanted nothing more than to stay right where she was. Scootaloo couldn't bring a hoof to move towards the door.

"That's right dear. You just stay here for now." A voice called out to her.

Scoot's head swiveled slowly towards her closet door. It was propped open just a bit from her searching earlier, but something about it was off.

Behind it, she could see that familiar red glow, the sound of mournful cries and rushing wind growing slowly as the door pushed open.

"You're safe and sound. Nothing can get you now."

The cages were still speeding by in the darkness, but one stayed where it was, hanging open. The faceless pony inside of it was reaching out to her.

"Don't you worry, my little darling. We won't let them hurt you anymore."

"Back off!" Scoot shouted at the monster. "You're not getting me again!" Looking around, Scootaloo grabbed the table leg from her bed and held it at the ready.

"What ever do you mean? We just want to keep you safe." It replied with a mouth that didn't exist.

"No! You were going to throw me to the monsters! You don't care if I'm safe or not. You just want me in that cage so I can't do anything anymore!"

The pony's cage slowly crept towards the closet opening, its inhabitant stepping out of the cage, out of the closet, and into the room.

"Do you even know what it is you're trying to do, little one?"

Scoot only thought about that for a moment.

"Yeah! I'm trying to find my friends." She shot back.

The faceless pony shook its head.

"Your friends left you Scootaloo. You're all by yourself, safe and sound with us now. See? You're home. You don't need friends who leave you alone."

She knew it wasn't true. But it still hurt a bit.

"You come near me again and I'll clobber you good." The little filly threatened.

"How can you speak to me like that? All I want to do is help. Now just...come with me." It moved closer.

"Back OFF!" Scootaloo swung the leg, smacking the pony clear in the face. It fell over, not moving.

"I don't need your help. So go back to where you came from or so help me, I'll hit you again."

The pony on the floor dissipated, evaporating into thin air as the scene in the closet faded to black. The door shut with a thunderous slam, all other sounds dying off to leave Scootaloo by herself. But not just the pony had vanished. Her room now stood bare and empty. Her bed was gone, the desk was missing. It almost looked like nopony had ever lived there.

"See? Everything, everypony...even you, eventually leaves. So what good are you?" She asked with a down turned gaze, staring at the spot where the faceless pony had been. The lump in her chest from before returned, growing colder.

Any resolve to stay had vanished with the monster. Scootaloo opened her door, ready to strike at Not Dream Catcher, only to find that he too was gone.

"Everypony leaves at some point." She repeated, noting his absence.

She took her time going down the stairs as every awkward step made her side burn, but she made it down without too much trouble. Looking around, there was no one home. It wasn't even the home she knew. All the furniture was gone or covered by cloth. The kitchen was empty, as were the living room and dining rooms. The whole thing had been false. Not that she'd expected anything less by this point. That much was almost painfully obvious the moment Not Dream Catcher showed up in her doorway.

None of it surprised her now. When she opened the front door to leave, she half expected some blood thirsty monster to be there, ready to try and tear her apart. All she found was a for-sale sign in the front lawn.

And there was another flash.

'That's right...I remember now...'

Scoot's heart sank even further if it was possible as she remembered the events of not that long ago. It couldn't have even been more than a few weeks since they had moved out, leaving her there.

===D.W.===

"Why? What would make you do something like this?" The stallion bellowed out, enraged.

"I don't know! I really don't!" Scoot backed into the closet, still holding her bat like it was her last line to life.

"Dear Luna Child, all we asked is that you go to your room! And what do you do? You club your mother like some barbarian?" He hissed vehemently through gritted teeth.

"Please! I'm sorry! I really am!"

"No. That's the last straw. We've been nothing but nice to you, and all you do is push us away. And now you've gone and broken her jaw. Why, I still don't understand. I've half a mind to throttle you myself!"

Scootaloo swung at him too as he advanced on her, though the stallion was smart enough to duck out of the way. That was her opening. She bolted out of the closet beneath him, running out of her bedroom.

Her mind was racing as she left the house behind, pushing hard on her scooter to get as far away from them as possible. She couldn't go back to the orphanage. Not now that she'd done what she did. They'd never take her back after this.

She couldn't go stay with Sweetie Belle and Rarity...or Applejack and Apple Bloom. They'd just turn her back over to the family.

No, there was only one place left for her to go now...

===D.W.===

Not even three days later, the house had gone up for sale...including most of her things in it. She had gone back to retrieve what she could, breaking in through one of the downstairs windows, just so she could have fortifications and supplies for when she moved into...

Where had she gone to? That part was still blank, for some reason.

She shook her head and cleared the thought. If things kept up the way they had been, she'd figure it out soon enough.

When nothing else made itself apparent, Scootaloo walked outside into the fog choked air, glad she packed her coat when a chill wind swept through the town and past her house. She looked up, seeing heavy dark clouds forming. The temperature dropped sharply, causing the little filly's breath to start smoking in the air before her.

Without hesitation, she reached around into her bag, past the blanket and the music box, rummaging for her coat. It came out without too much hassle, and while it was a bit awkward to don with the bag and her busted wing, she made due. At least the coat provided her with a bit of warmth against the chill.

As Scoot moved along into town, things indeed seemed to be back to their normal state. The buildings all looked familiar, the streets were back to their cobblestone appearance in places, the bright colors had returned to the shops and houses.

It was as if the Weather Team hadn't cleared up the clouds and the fog. Just a typical cold, fall morning.

Scootaloo wandered about for a bit, the town deathly quiet as she roamed the streets. The wind blowing through barely made a sound. It was literally quiet enough to hear a pin drop at times. All of Ponyville, it seemed, had been deserted. For half a moment, Scoot stopped and turned towards the direction of Dream Catcher's house. It wasn't hard to remember where it had been. The thought of going there only seemed to depress her further though, almost as much as when she'd wandered down the alley where they'd met up rather forcibly to find her Scooter still missing.

Still, he had proved somewhat useful, and without any other clue as to what she was going to do, Scoot made her way over.

When she got there, nothing seemed out of place. The door was closed and the windows were shuttered. No visible light source gleamed through the cracks in the doorway or between the shutters. The building was dark and just as quiet as the rest of Ponyville. When she tried opening the door, she found it unlocked and easily pushed her way inside.

The place was surprisingly clean compared to how it had looked when she'd last entered. There were no broken music boxes lying around, no tools or parts. Nothing out of the ordinary. Except for one rolled up piece of paper on the workbench in the middle of the room. Upon closer inspection, Scoot found her name written on it. Sort of.

"He messed it up again." She sighed, looking down at 'Skootarloo' scrawled in poor hoofwriting across the roll.

But wait. If this was here...maybe he was all right after all?

That warranted investigating.

First though, Scootaloo unrolled the paper to find that it was a hoofdrawn map of Ponyville. Here and there were marks on the paper, few of which made any sense at all. Most of them were just circles around random buildings. Two or three caught her attention though.

Rarity's Boutique.

Sweet Apple Acres.

And a hastily drawn box with a triangle on top of it out in the middle of the Apple Orchards. The Clubhouse. How did he know about the Crusader's Clubhouse?

That, she decided, she'd ask him when she found him again. Scoot took off, searching every room of the house. It was a lot bigger on the inside than it seemed outdoors, the single story home with a loft actually providing a lot of space. She started her search in the bedrooms. Multiple. There were four of them all cramped together in the back of the building. Each one was big enough though to be at least as big as the upper floor of Twilight's Library where she slept.

Scoot turned up a few black and white pictures in her search. One showed Dream Catcher and a whole bunch of foals standing outside of the Orphanage. She could see Grandma Blankie and Dream standing close to one another, along with a white Unicorn right beside them surrounded by all the young ponies.

One turned up another picture of the odd-eyed pony and the Unicorn side by side in a bright room, though they both looked to be considerably younger than in the first picture.

In the last photo, she saw Dream standing next to an Earth Pony. The image was blurred as if whoever had taken the picture kept moving the camera so it was hard to tell, but if the pony's build had been any indication though, it was definitely a mare. The background of the image looked vaguely familiar too. The surrounding landscape was covered in snow.

Something about the images pressed further into her mind, especially the last one, more so than the little Pegasus wanted to admit. She found it hard to believe that she was actually becoming interested in Dream Catcher. She'd met a figure from his past. She'd seen where he grew up. Why, if this was something she had to do...did his life keep interfering in her 'nightmare' as he'd called it?

Yet another question she resolved to ask him when she found him.

With nothing left to search for in the back of the house, Scoot took herself into the kitchen. Here, things seemed a bit lived in. Dishes lie in the sink and strainer covered in dust, a tribute to how long it'd been since anypony had ventured into the house. But that didn't make any...

"Stop trying to make sense of this stuff..." She scolded herself. Scoot knew it was useless. Everything in this place had made little headway towards the direction of common modes of thinking. She took another brief glance around...

When her eyes fell on a cellar door, partially open.

She swung the door the wide, peering down into the basement. A soft, hazy red glow cast deep shadows on the walls that were visible, and what could only be described as an otherworldly wind could be heard.

Nodding to herself as much for reassurance as for a decision, the little Pegasus descended the stairs slowly.

It was dark, dank and musty, but the light provided just enough light to see the horrors that lie strewn about the room.

Bodies of ponies hung from the walls, stripped of their skins. Piles of skeletons littered the corners of the room save from the foot of the staircase. Dark spatters stained the floor all around her as she took in the nightmarish sights. At one corner of the room, it looked as though a Pony had been sliced in half and then literally hung by his own insides...which then strung across the room to his lower half. Along the way, clothing and various assortments of cloth were attached by pins, as if they were hanging from a wash-line to dry.

She tried, but there was only so much Scootaloo could do to keep her tiny insides from flip-flopping. She found the nearest empty spot on the floor, since finding a clean one would've been impossible anyway, and left out a few heaving coughs, unable to tear her eyes away from the sight of the massacre. She more than felt like she was going to be sick, but somehow Scoot managed to keep most of it down, peering around through the pain the hacking had caused to her side.

Her eyes settled on an ornate golden floor style mirror, a red vortex of light and sound swirling around in the glass. Below it, Scootaloo was able to pick out a small plaque with some writing on it. Gathering herself up off the floor, she moved closer to it.

Behind the eyes in the darkness of the void,

Beyond the lies in the heart of the truth.

Hidden in shadows never brought to light,

Enter now and forever know your place.

Scoot was beyond words at this point, unable to even try to comprehend what it meant. But she could feel it in her gut. This mirror had something to do not only with Dream and the horrible scene around her...but also with whatever was going on period.

Just as she was about to take a step away from the eery looking portal, the siren began its droning wail, just barely audible over the sound of the vortex. All around, the impossible began happened.

What she thought had been the most horrifying, most disgusting thing in her life...seemed to be getting one hundred times as bad. The walls appeared to be flaking and peeling away, leaving rusted steel mesh in its place. There was a harsh sound like sheering metal, as the floor beneath her began to flake like the walls had, parts of it dropping away into an immeasurable abyss full of chains and iron girders. Some of the bodies and skeletons had been lying on pieces that plummeted out, echoing with dull thuds, cracks and splintering sounds as they bounced off of the metal on the way down.

As the building around her collapsed, the siren increased in pitch, leaving Scoot's ears ringing. It was beginning to make her head pound just trying to block out the noise until at last, the warning mercifully stopped on a long, mournful note.

Once she'd taken her hooves out of her ears, Scootaloo looked around again.

The basement had transformed into a charnel house of blood and corpses. Three massive holes had opened up into the abyss below, presumably without any foundation at the bottom. They gaped wide, suggesting a straight drop to which there would be no coming back from. If that wasn't enough; the heat now wafting up from the pit was almost unbearable. Scoot could feel the sweat breaking out on her brow, streaming down her face to fall through the diamond-shaped cutouts in the mesh.

And then there was the mirror. The vortex has vanished, and a now quiet, almost beautiful scene lie on the other side. It was Rarity's Boutique. The white Unicorn could be seen busying herself behind one of her sewing machines as she worked on some new fashion breakthrough. Sweetie Belle was there too, situating some of the dressing dummies like they were all joining her for a tea party.

"Sweetie Belle!" Scootaloo cried out, pounding against the glass. "Sweetie Belle, Over Here!" She yelled at the top of her lungs.

For whatever reason, neither the little unicorn nor her older sister seemed to hear her. Both carried on like there was nothing wrong with the world.

"Guys, come on! It's me!" She punched the mirror harder, trying to break through it.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Scootaloo froze, mid-swing. She backed away from the glass, unsure of whether or not she wanted to know who was behind her...or how they'd gotten there.

"That's right. Step back from the mirror, little filly."

"You?" Scoot turned, seeing Dream Catcher standing across the room from her, seeming unphased from his ordeal with the stair pony.

"Do I know you?" He asked, brows furrowed as he studied her intently.

"What do you mean, do you know me? You're the reason I'm here in the first place!" She shouted angrily, any relief at his appearance waning away in the wake of his stupidity and forgetfulness.

He simply shook his head.

"No, I can't say that we're acquainted. Though I am glad you're here. I've been feeling the need to have a bit of fun." He replied, stone faced.

"How can anyone have fun in a place like this? What happened to these ponies? And why are they in your basement, Dream?" She asked.

"What did you just call me?" He seemed taken aback at that.

"Your name? Dream Catcher?"

With this, the Pegasus burst out into an uproarious laughter.

"So THAT'S what's going on. You think he's me. How quaint."

"Wait...you're not Dream? Just how many of you crazy ponies are there?" Scoot beat her forehead with a hoof in exasperated aggravation. "There's Dream Catcher...there's Not Dream Catcher...just who are you if you aren't Dream Catcher?"

The pony chuckled lightly as he took a step closer to her, his hoofs clanging menacingly on the metal.

"Well, I suppose it would be wrong of me to say that I'm not Dream Catcher in a way. You see...he and I are one in the same."

Scoot wanted to scream.

"You mean he's not just stupid-crazy, but he's got voices in his head too?! What gives? When will anything make sense here? Who the Hay are you?"

"Why...I am Soul Weaver, my little pony...and this is my domain."

A One in a Million Chance

~So we look at the mind, and find out that it is merely a mirror of the world around us. Everything we have ever seen or done is reflected back upon our memory like the pane of glass situated in the frame. Forever embedded in its placeholder, the mind serves as not only the home of our subconscious, but of our very essence itself. The spirit of who we've made of our own self.

And in the mind lies two worlds in which our subconscious truly live in. The one perceived, and the one experienced. As we experience the world through our eyes, the subconscious perception of our inner world changes to fit that of our daily lives. So if you find yourself having nightmares...you really are the source of them, and the only one at fault for these hellish visions. You have no greater enemy than that which you make of yourself.

-An excerpt from the Book of Fillysophical Studies, by: Dr. Rhindquarters

===D.W.===

"Soul Weaver huh?" Scootaloo asked of the Pegasus before her. He seemed every bit as much the same as Dream Catcher, except he wasn't him either. So now there were three psychotic Pegasus Ponies running around in an already crazy, mixed up version of Ponyville. Great.

"Don't take my name with such familiarity young one. I still know you not, and as such, before I begin to play with you I think proper introductions are in order." The other pony replied.

"You're gonna play with me? Sorry, I don't think I want any part in the kind of games you like." She looked around the room, still noting the pony strung up by its insides hanging across the space like some sick drying line.

"You still haven't introduced yourself. Are you trying to ruin my good mood?" Soul Weaver stamped a hoof impatiently.

"Oh, what does it matter?"

"It matters a lot, young one. How can I tell anypony about the great times we're about to enjoy if I don't have a name to put to the stories?" He seemed genuinely serious about it.

Scoot took him in. He looked like Dream Catcher. His wings were busted. His eyes were two different colors. And for all intents and purposes, he was the dim-witted Pegasus she knew. Everything except that vehement, displeasing stare he kept giving her; like he was standing amongst common filth to his perceived royalty or something.

She began to think of ways to try and outsmart him.

"Okay...so you want my name. I'm Scootaloo. Happy?" She snapped back.

"Scootaloo, hmm? Excellent! The stories are always Much better when I have names for faces. You see, I like telling stories. I find them to be a most amusing way to pass the time, especially the good ones. When you've got so much to talk about, the stories just seem to flow and you can entertain hundreds for hours if you do it just right."

Scoot shrugged.

"Not like I care about any story you've got."

"Oh? But I think you'd find my stories most entertaining. Like the one about this pony." He walked over to the corner where the upper half of the wash-line pony was hanging. "He was a great sport. He even bet me that he could wake up, as if everything around him was a dream. He was so sure he was dreaming that he bet his life on it. Unfortunately for him..." Soul Weaver smirked.

"Yeah, I kinda got the idea by now. You finished?" Scootaloo asked, the heat and surrounding environment making it extremely hard to think, let alone the presence of this ill tempered creature before her.

He shook his head.

"Oh heavens no. I've got a really great tale I think you'd be interested in hearing!" Soul Weaver practically beamed. "It's the story of a young filly who became separated from her friends and got lost in the world of her nightmares." He grinned with cold, calculating eyes, drawing closer to her.

"All right...I'll bite." Scoot nodded, knowing from his look that he had to be talking about her.

"Excellent! You see, this little pony thought that she was the greatest thing to hit Equestria since her hero. She had the gall to believe that she could be just as good. She even went so far as to frequently shun her friends attempts to help her...just to be more like her hero. And then one day...she hit her head and fell asleep. But it was so much more than just a dream. For in the world that she found herself...her worst nightmares had come to life. The things she once loved and cherished...were now out to destroy her. And the only way for her to get out..." He left off.

"Yeah? You're not gonna finish?"

Soul Weaver chuckled, though his eyes continued to bore icicle daggers into her.

"Well...that'd be giving away a perfectly good ending. I'm not one for spoiling the last few chapters of a good read."

"Some story teller you are. Can't even finish his own story." Scoot mocked, the first idea that popped into her head. She hoped...just maybe, that this pony would be as easily offended as Not Dream Catcher.

He merely rolled his eyes.

"Oh, I'm aware of all the possible endings, young Scootaloo. However, it isn't for me to decide which ending the tale has."

"Then what is your job, goofy-eyes?" She sighed, her ploy lost.

Soul Weaver picked up a hoof, running it down the side of her face gently, earning himself a satisfied sigh when Scootaloo shuddered at his touch.

"My dear...I am just another character in the tale. I cannot decide the ending that the story has...I am merely here to make sure that it's as unpleasant as possible."

Scoot backed away from him, still feeling his cold hoof against her muzzle. For all her bravado, this pony was genuinely beginning to terrify her, that righteous fury at Dream Catcher freezing up under this pony's icy stare and dead cold touch.

He saw his chance in her eyes, leaning down close to her.

"So then, now that we've got the plot and the characters...how about the play, hmm? I think I've got the perfect game for you." He whispered, barely audible over the groaning of the miles of metal beneath them.

Scoot gulped.

"What kind of game?"

"Oh...just a simple game of Pin the Tail on the Pony." He replied, holding out what looked like a tail from the game. Upon closer inspection, the hair turned up to be real, a small chunk of flesh still attached at one end with a nail pierced through it. "And here's your target." Soul Weaver pointed up to the lower half of the wash-line pony, it's tail now missing. "All you have to do is walk across the room from the stairs to our friend here, and give him his tail back. Sound fun?"

Scootaloo backed away from the tail, only to find herself up against the mirror with no where else to go. Soul Weaver stood over her, the tail held up in one hoof, his polychromatic gaze staring down at her with such an intensity that Scoot almost forgot about the sweltering heat, the chill from his eyes freezing her to the core.

"And if it doesn't sound fun? If I don't want to play?"

"My dear, you have no choice." His grin spread wider.

Scoot almost sighed in resignation when she remembered his starting point. The Stairs. If she could get over there, she might get out.

"All right. I guess I'll play." She nodded, reaching up for the disgusting left over of the poor pony that had been Soul Weaver's last game partner. A grimace spread wide over her features, her eyes closed as she felt the strands of hair touch her hooves. It sent a chill down her spine to accompany the growing ball of ice in her gut, but she gathered what little courage she could muster under Soul Weaver's intense scrutiny, slowly making her way over to the stairs.

As she neared the bottom though, she could feel her heart sink even deeper, if it was possible. From the middle of the staircase, a plume of black smoke wafted up from a hole where a pair of golden eyes glimmered menacingly out at her. So much for that plan.

"Oh! One last rule." Soul Weaver called out.

"And that is?" Scootaloo turned to face her captor.

"Since we don't really have any blindfolds here, you're going to have to do this game in the dark." He nodded, happy with his pronouncement as he brought a hoof down upon the section of floor he was standing on. As he did, the world around them seemed to black out into complete shadow.

"But how will I see the holes in the floor?" Scoot cried out. "This isn't fair!"

Soul Weaver laughed.

"It'd be no different than if you had a blind fold on, am I wrong?" He retorted.

She had to admit...he did have a point.

So, slowly...and with painstaking care, Scootaloo felt her way across the metal mesh, inching closer and closer to where she'd last seen the poor pony's carcass hanging from the ceiling. The darkness wasn't what scared her as she moved, no. It was knowing that the abyss still lie deep beneath her if she moved to the wrong spot on the floor. Just as she felt the first hole in her projected path, Scootaloo felt the section she was standing on starting to buckle and give way. In a complete blind leap of panic, Scoot jumped.

And felt nothing beneath her.

By some chance of pure luck, her front hooves found purchase on the next section of floor as she fell through the hole. It was still jagged and sharp from where the floor pieces had separated earlier, and it cut deep into the soft flesh around her hooves, but she held on. Flapping her one good wing as hard as she could while ignoring the pain from the other trying to move, Scootaloo pulled herself up onto the metal grating, panting hard at her near miss.

"Oh, good job little filly! That was a close one. Did I forget to mention that the floor isn't all that stable? Silly me, I've really let this place go. It's in such a state of disrepair that I should really be ashamed of myself." He seemed to be mocking her with each word, knowing full well that she'd most likely fall. "Anyway, do continue on! You're providing me with much entertainment! I can't wait to tell everypony about this story. They're going to love it!"

Scootaloo did her best to avoid the holes as they materialized in the darkness beneath her hooves, and more than once had to make a blind leap into the complete shadow. But she slowly made her way across the metal floor until at last, she could feel the wet blood of the deceased pony dripping down from above her. Without so much as another thought, Scootaloo jumped up, driving the nail in the disgusting tail into the corpse, hitting the floor again with a rather frightening shake as it felt ready to give way beneath her.

"Well done! Well done indeed, Scootaloo!" Soul Weaver chimed in from the darkness. "You've pinned it right good, you have!"

Slowly, the inky blackness around her lifted. With a start, Scoot looked around to see the veritable mine-field of holes she'd made as she crossed the room. There was barely one-quarter of the floor left to stand on, counting the holes that had already been there.

"Excellent, my little filly. Well played. Now, look down at your hooves to find your prize!" The black Pegasus slowly came into view across the room.

With a bit of trepidation, Scootaloo looked down to find a few rainbow colored follicles of hair littering the mesh beneath her. She jumped back quickly, bringing her eyes up to see that the pony from before had been replaced, the hindquarters of a skyblue Pegasus with a multicolored tail hanging instead in its place. On its flanks, a familiar rainbow colored lightning bolt seemed to be charred into the flesh and fur.

"No!" Scoot cried, ducking her head down, covering her eyes. "That can't be!"

A hollow laugh resounded from Soul Weaver.

"Ah, but do your eyes lie to you? Is that not the pony you most want to be like? To idolize? Now that she's out of the way Scootaloo, your prize for pinning the tail perfectly is your one shot at becoming number one! Isn't that what you want?"

"Not like this!" Scoot shouted, not sure which emotion was stronger at that point. Rage...or sorrow.

"Hey, take it easy kiddo. Everything's all right."

Scoot almost didn't want to believe her ears.

"Rainbow Dash?" She called out, still keeping her eyes covered.

"Don't worry lil'Scoot! You're gonna be fine!"

"Where are you?!"

"Open your eyes, squirt. I'm right here."

It took a few seconds to muster up the courage, but Scootaloo gradually removed her hooves from her eyes...instantly wishing she hadn't. From the other corner of the room, the upper half of Dash was talking to her. She backpedaled, screaming...and caught herself right before she fell into one of the many holes in the floor.

"What's wrong? Ain'tcha happy to see me?" The corpse mocked.

"You're not Rainbow Dash! You're just some...monster!"

"Hey, who're you callin a monster, kid?" Corpse-Dash shot back. "I ain't no monster!"

"Ah...what a touching reunion." Soul Weaver sighed happily, wiping away a mock tear. "Oh! And if that was good, I've got another friend for you Scootaloo! This way, we can keep playing games! Isn't this rather fun?" He asked, tapping his hoof lightly on the ground. As he did, the vortex reappeared in the mirror to Scoot's right.

Out stepped a dark gray Pegasus Pony, her hair and mane done up in varying shades of silver. On her rump, a dark splotch was surrounded by a glowing vortex of energy.

"Scootaloo, meet my dear friend: Singularity."

"This can't be happening." Scoot shook her head, backing even further away from this new arrival.

"Oh, but it is. Singularity, say hello to Scootaloo, our guest for this evening."

The Anti-Dash looked over at Scoot, a dark, menacing smile appearing on her muzzle.

"Well hello there twerp. Wish I could say it's nice ta meetcha, but...well it ain't." She smirked.

"No! This isn't real! You're not real!" Scoot denied to the very last ends of her last nerve, feeling what was left of her resolve fading faster than you could say cupcakes.

Soul Weaver laughed heartily.

"That's exactly what my last guest kept saying! Oh, the irony. This is just too good. That line never gets old, I swear." He could barely contain the twisted joy hidden behind those cold, uncaring eyes. "Well then...I'll leave you two to get acquainted. Singularity, would you be so kind as to instigate our next game? I've got some things to do, but I'll be back shortly."

"Yeah yeah, whatever." Anti-Dash waved her hoof in dismissal. "I got this."

"Excellent! Now Scootaloo, you play nice with Singularity here. I went to a lot of trouble to find you a playmate." With that, the black Pegasus seemingly melded into the wall behind him, as if he'd never been there at all.

Scoot's full attention now came to the blasphemy standing before her.

"So then twerp...how's about a game of tag?" Anti-Dash squared herself off, lowering her head close to the ground as if preparing to charge.

Scootaloo looked around.

"You've gotta be kidding! We can't run around in here! What if I fall through?" She continued backing up until her rump met the wall behind her.

"Not my problem kiddo. I can fly." As if to accentuate her point, Singularity spread her wings, flapping them once.

Scoot couldn't see any way out of the situation. Smoke continued to pour out of the staircase...that exit was still barricaded by the staircase pony. There were too many holes in the floor to move about safely. The mirror would be all that could stand between her and this reverse world Rainbow Dash.

The Mirror! It had shown Rarity's Boutique earlier! Scoot hesitantly glanced over to see that the vortex was still swirling behind the glass. If this Dash had come out of it...maybe...

The Anti-Dash made her move. She took off at lightning speed, aiming straight for the filly. Scootaloo barely had time to register the fact before she dove out of the way, landing behind the mirror. Singularity arced just in time to avoid hitting the wall and dove down underneath the floor through a hole, zooming back around to come up through another.

This was her chance.

Scootaloo rolled out from behind the mirror and threw herself at it with all of her strength.

She was met with a dull, resounding thud as her head hid the glass. Nothing happened.

"No!" She began to beat on it with her hooves again, trying to get to her last bid for freedom.

The Anti-Dash wasted no time, rushing her again. This time, Scoot couldn't move out of the way as they both collided, hitting the framed glass. It shattered into a million pieces...and Scootaloo's world went black once more.

===D.W.===

There was a slight ringing in her ears. She was sore all over, her busted wing throbbing intensely as she tried to sit up.

It had worked.

Scootaloo took a look around to find herself in the Boutique. Well...what looked like it might have once been the Boutique. All around, the skins of dead ponies hung on the mannequins like they were being used to design clothing. Marks had been made in the flesh in the shapes of sleeves and dresses. The stench was nigh unbearable, causing Scoot to almost lose her stomach again. But she shook it off, focusing on the pain in her wing. It hurt to high heaven, but it kept her mind clear enough.

Quickly surveying the area, she noted with some satisfaction that Singularity was gone, at least for the moment. She also took inventory of her things. They were all still in their places, though the music box had been thoroughly smashed. Any pieces of its remains lie broken on the floor. So much for that.

Her skates had fared well, thankfully, as she drew them onto her hooves. If this was going to be a game of speed, she'd need every bit of leeway she could get. Her hooves ached, her head throbbed and her wing was quite literally pounding in its socket, but there would be no time to worry about that if the Anti-Dash came back for her.

"Hey! Pipsqueak! Come on out! We aren't done playing yet!"

Scoot quickly ducked under a decrepit looking metal table, one that Rarity's sewing machine was almost always perched on. She looked out from under it to see a shadow go flying past the window outside.

"Dang...this just keeps going from bad to worse..." She thought out loud. Scootaloo waited there for what seemed like forever before moving. As she was about to get out from under the table, a light red cloth fell down across her face.

Scoot pulled it down, finding herself staring at Sweetie Bell's Cutie Mark Crusader's cape. It was in poor shape, much like everything else in this world had been, but it was still recognizable. The initials S.B. were hoof-stitched into the collar with obvious TLC, giving away Sweetie Bell's handiwork. Scoot took the cape, snuggling it gently for a moment.

'Man I wish I was home right now...'

With little else to go on, Scootaloo packed it away into her already stuffed saddlebag, slowly edging her way to the door. It didn't seem like Singularity was still hanging around, but to be safe, she peeked her head around outside before exiting the building.

If Ponyville had ever been in a fit state of war, Scootaloo imagined it would've looked much like this.

Buildings were up and gone in some places. In others, they had collapsed in on themselves or were full of holes, steel beams and crossbars interweaving intricate patterns throughout the town. It was almost as if Ponyville had become the site of some post-war construction zone...except without all the typical safety measures in place.

There were more bottomless chasms in the streets. The roads themselves had turned back into their solid metal plate remnants of the old-time Ponyville. All around, the smells of smoke, fire and ash permeated the air, and the sky itself was once again pitch black, save for the hazy red glow cast up from the pits.

"Just great." Scoot sighed, pushing herself off on her skates. As she rolled, she pulled out the map that Dream Catcher had left for her, noting now with some surprise that Rarity's Boutique had been magically erased from the map. The library and Sugar Cube Corner were gone too. Town Square was a large black spot and most of the stores had large X's through them. All that remained untouched now were Sweet Apple Acres and the poorly drawn image of the Crusader's tree house.

"Sweet Apple Acres it is then." She nodded, setting out for the south road out of town. The roads remained mostly clear, though occasionally, there was the thunderous beat of the Boiling Pony's hoofsteps. Thankfully, none of the large beasts made an appearance.

That is, until the bridge across the river. Just as Scootaloo was about to cross into the pasture lands where the cows grazed, there came a sickening crunch of bending metal. A boiling monstrosity meandered slowly out of the shadows on the opposite side, staring down Scootaloo with a fierce intensity.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" She moaned, almost forgetting her weapon. With determination set into her, she reached around for the table leg, only to feel herself lifted up quickly, then dropped back to the ground flat on her stomach. Her wing put out another horrid jolt of pain as she landed, knocking the wind out of her.

"I'll be taking that!" the familiar voice of Singularity echoed in the darkness above her. As Scoot regained what little composure she could muster, she reached back only to feel that the weapon was missing. Looking up, she could see the gray pony cackling maniacally to herself, holding the table leg. With a quick toss, she chucked it into the river beneath the bridge, watching it wash away in the blood red waters.

"You Jerk!" Scootaloo shouted up at her.

"Hey, life's tough twerp. Gotta learn somehow!" She smiled that wicked, sick smile of hers before popping a black cloud seemingly out of nowhere. The malicious Anti-Dash flopped down on it, getting comfortable. "Time to enjoy the show!"

Scoot's attention was brought back to the bridge as it shook again violently, the Boiling Pony rearing up as if to crush her beneath its front hooves.

Scootaloo dodged out of the way, back off the bridge towards town before spinning around. Without a weapon, there was little she could do to fend off the monster. She had to think quick, the large grotesque thing was getting closer by the second.

And then, she saw her window of opportunity.

Right between the legs of the monster.

A gap had opened up as it shifted its weight to try and remove some of the boiling cutie marks, leaving a space just wide enough, Scoot hoped, to squeeze through. Just as the monster turned around to begin gnawing at its hide, Scootaloo took her shot and pushed forward, powering herself along on her one good wing while the other throbbed painfully. Just as she reached the Boiling Pony's front hooves however, the beast reared up with a section of its hide in its mouth.

Scootaloo had seen first hand what those bubbling cutie marks could do and drove herself forward for all she was worth. She ducked under the behemoth just as it dropped the sloughed skin onto the bridge, feeling the intense heat of the marks eating through the metal behind her. Just as she made it over the bridge, the structure collapsed, taking the monstrosity with it into the water.

"Not bad pint-size. Should try out for the Shadow Bolts." Anti-Dash called down. "Not that you'd ever stand a chance. They're only like, the best fliers in all of the Everfree Forest. Gonna be one myself someday."

"I wouldn't join you or the Shadow Bolts if my life depended on it!" Scoot shot back, not slowing her momentum as she raced for Sweet Apple Acres.

"Hey, you can't talk to me like that!" Singularity called back angrily. "Just for that, I'm gonna pull out my best trick for ya!" If Scootaloo had been looking, she'd have seen the most insidious smile to ever have fallen on Equestria.

Singularity left her cloud, racing into the sky at breakneck speeds, pulling a complete U-turn once she'd reached optimum height. She folded her wings down against her gray body, both hooves forward as she plummeted towards the surface. Before her, a conical build up of energy began to flow out and round the evil Pegasus' body, turning into a slip-stream around her.

Scootaloo could hear the signature whistle of something moving incredibly fast through the air behind her. Daring a look over her shoulder, she caught a glimpse of Anti-Dash mid-fall, somehow knowing what was coming in the pit of her gut.

"One Black Hole Blast, just for you, ya little brat!" Singularity cried out into the night as she broke the sound barrier, angling off at the ground to come parallel to it. The energy shock wave burst out into the sky as a white hot ring, a black trail rocketing behind the pony. But as she soared closer and closer to Scootaloo, two things happened simultaneously.

The shock wave began to collapse back in on itself, a swirling vortex at the center of it sucking in everything around a singularity left behind in the wake of so much energy being released at once. To add to that, the trail of shadow that Anti-Dash was leaving behind...seemed to disintegrate everything it touched, the entire countryside vanishing into a black void even as Scootaloo did her best to outrun it.

"You're mine now, pip-squeak!" She bellowed, quickly gaining ground on the orange filly.

Her mind was racing. There was no way she could outrun the coming pony. No where to hide from that expanding shadow...no place to escape from that swirling portal that was devouring everything. She had one option.

In a last ditch effort to stop the oncoming pony, Scootaloo reached over into her saddlebag at the risk of her precarious balance, pulling out Grandma Blankie's blanket.

'I've only got one shot at this...gotta make it count...'

Singularity was getting closer by the split-second...

Scootaloo risked another look over her shoulder...

'NOW!'

She left go of the blanket, the cloth covering fluttering backwards in her wake. It landed smack dab on Anti-Dash's face, causing the Pegasus to go into a mid-air tumble. The shadow-trail behind her died out and the vortex too began to fade, its outward source of power lacking enough strength to keep it rotating. The singularity slowly collapsed upon itself, closing up in a bright flash of light.

'YES!' Scoot could barely contain her happiness. It had worked. A one in a million shot...and it had worked.

Overhead, the grey hued pegasus went careening out of control, running headlong into a tree with a sickening crunch of bones. The tree itself fell over from the force of the impact, taking the limp pony with it to the ground, her face covered by the bright blue rainbow maker on the blanket. Scootaloo slowed herself down, skating over to where the Anti-Dash had crashed, picking up the cloth.

There was no life to be seen in Singularity's vacant gaze. The crash had killed her.

"That's what you get for trying to imitate the best!" Scootaloo yelled triumphantly, tucking the blanket back into her bag. She sat down to catch her breath quickly, noting with dismay that the shadow-trail, while no longer a threat, had completely cut off any road back into Ponyville. The entire countryside had either fallen victim to it, or the black hole left behind in its wake.

"Well...guess I'm not going back That way." Scootaloo shrugged, wincing when her wing came back to haunt her with its incessant pulsating. The escape had taken more out of her than she'd thought. She did her best to once again push the pain aside, steeling her resolve. Sweet Apple Acres was just ahead. And hopefully...so was the end of this nightmare.

The Road Home

~Alas, the topic of the mind is an extensive one, and should a pony ever try to fully understand its workings, said pony would probably find themselves locked in a state of eternal study. We may never fully understand how the mind itself works. We may never understand what place dreams and nightmares have in our lives.

Yet if one thing is to be certain, it is this:

Dreams and Nightmares will always be a profound mystery to the prying eye.

-An excerpt from the Book of Fillysophical Studies, by: Dr. Rhindquarters

===D.W.===

Scoot was almost out of breath. The Bloated Fillies seemed to be coming from behind every single apple tree, not to mention the smoke-spitting shadow ponies coming OUT of the trees themselves. What had started out as a simple skate down the road after the incident with the reverse world Dash had turned into a flight for her life.

She ducked to the left to avoid a massive scythe coming down from a knothole in the tree just above her, timing a jump perfectly to clear a set of distended hindquarters as its owner crawled down the path towards her. Then, another quick jump to avoid the creature lurking in the shadow of the next tree, only to have to pull a full split to avoid the next well-aimed scythe.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" She yelled between attempts at catching her breath and avoiding the monsters. "Where did all of you come from?"

As if to ice the cake, a Boiling Pony trod from between a set of tall yet withered and rotten Golden Delicious trees. Already in the process of shedding its hide, the pony tossed the large chunk of bubbling flesh at Scootaloo, missing by a hair's breadth as the skin landed on the filly monster behind her. The creature left out a shrieking cry as it melted beneath the flap of super heated cutie marks, leaving only a rough hole in the ground.

Shaking off the close calls, Scoot pushed her legs as fast as the skates and her awkward balance would allow her, racing for Apple Bloom's house. She'd seen it as she'd crossed the last hillock, the barn standing against the inky black sky in the distance.

'Almost there...'

She put on one last burst of speed, dodging another bloated filly that was creeping its way out into the road. The buildings finally came into sight just up ahead.

'So close.'

The ground shuddered and she felt herself wrenched into the air. The smell of charring skin wafted up over her, making her sick to her stomach almost instantly.

Scoot turned to look over her shoulder, seeing her saddlebag in the mouth of yet another boiling pony. Its beady eyes locked onto hers and it began to shake her around roughly, the straps of her bag jarring her injured wing and sore muscles like never before. Out of reflex, Scootaloo's legs bucked out, knocking the pony in the throat hard enough that it left her go with a rattling wheeze. She fell to the ground, almost sure she'd made an imprint when her body collided with the rough surface.

The little orange filly stood herself back up, almost numb to the pain by this point. She was sore, bruised and battered. Her wing would probably never be the same again. And if not for the cuts on her forelegs and in various other places, she was sure she'd fall down and give in should infection set in.

But there, within sight was the Apple Family household. One of the last two places in Ponyville she was able to reach.

There was a thundering rapport as the boiling pony that dropped her brought its hooves down, shaking the ground around them violently. It began to crack and splinter like a pane of shattering glass, prompting Scootaloo to get her legs under her again. She bolted out of range of the massive monstrosity, closing the distance between her and the house.

As soon as her skates hit the front porch, Scoot undid them as quick as she possibly could manage, tying them back around her neck before forcing her way in through the front door. Not that the poor thing could've managed. Even though it had been locked, the door was practically falling off of its hinges, rotting away in various places.

The sight inside was much the same as everywhere else had been. Dark, creepy, full of metal and obviously not safe. As if to solidify this, two plumes of smoke appeared from the staircase in the main room and a shadow underneath a busted up lounger as soon as she set hoof inside the building. Unfortunately, the stairs were the one way out, as the lounger was pushed over in front of the doorway to the kitchen, the only other exit aside from the front door.

"Well, that's just perfect." Scoot mused, looking around. There was little to be seen here. Overturned furniture, smatters of what might've been blood along the walls and floor in varying places. A single lit candle giving off the only illumination sat in its holder atop the one end-table that wasn't destroyed.

That gave her an idea.

Scootaloo went over to the candle, lifting the holder in her mouth. As she approached the lounger, the shadow underneath it faded, and with it, a horrid screech as the creature inhabiting it fizzled out of existence.

'Perfect! Now as long as this doesn't go out...' She ended the thought, not wanting to jinx herself.

Carefully, Scoot climbed up atop the lounger, pushing the doorway to the kitchen open. She was met with a light so blinding that she had to close her eyes, such was its intensity.

"Apple Bloom, can ya fetch me that there pie-pan? Thuh crust mix is almost readeh."

Applejack's voice seemed to carry throughout the kitchen as the light died down. With eyes now open, she could see the space as plain as day. It looked as though she were back in the regular Ponyville, standing in the Apple family kitchen. Nothing was out of place. Applejack stood in front of the table, a mixing spoon in one hoof, pie batter on the other as she tasted it.

"C'mon Apple Bloom, don't ya wanna try some of this?" The pony was staring off into a corner where the little filly was sitting in her crusader's cape with a rather sullen expression.

"No." Apple Bloom replied.

"Aww c'mon now Sugar Cube. What's wrong?"

Apple Bloom sniffed, almost as if she was holding back tears.

"Sweetie Belle an' Scootaloo were supposed tuh come over today so we could go out on ahnother try for our Cutie Marks...but Scoot ended up chasin after Rainbow Dash again. An' Sweetie Belle didn't wanna do it if all three of us weren't gonna be there."

Applejack set the spoon down, cleaning her other hoof off before going over to her little sister.

"Hey, it's not like she plum fergot about ya. Scootaloo's just a lil' mixed up, that's all. She dun wanna hurt yer feelins. She juss needs some time to figure out what she's doin, ya'll see what ahm sayin?"

Apple Bloom nodded, wiping her cheek to hide the single drop that slid down it.

"Scoot juss looks up to Rainbow Dash cuz she likes her is all. Ahm sure if she stopped ta think about it fer a second, she'd see that while Dash is good, she ain't no better than anypony else. 'Specially you."

Applejack leaned down and nuzzled her little sister gently.

"Tell ya whut. Ah'll help ya out after the pies are done, okay? We'll go out n' try ta find yer special talent. Juss me n' you. How's about that?"

Apple Bloom looked up, eyes watering.

"Ya mean it, sis?"

"Sure do. Now c'mon. Let's get these pies a-bakin' so's we can get out there faster." The older pony smiled softly, brushing Apple Bloom's mane back a bit.

"M'kay."

And with that...the scene faded in another blinding flash of light, leaving Scootaloo's eyes to catch up. The kitchen was now just as ramshackle as the rest of the building, the candle burning a soft light out into the dank, rusted interior.

"Apple Bloom...I, I didn't mean it. Really." She spoke, knowing full well that no one was around to hear her. She just had to get it out though, wiping at her own eyes now. Had she really hurt her friend that much with her idolizing of Rainbow Dash?

It didn't matter now. She'd fix that bridge when she got home again. A quick glance around the kitchen turned up nothing useful. Nothing to be used as a weapon, no extra candles, matches or anything. Not even so much as a clue as to what she had to do next.

Scootaloo returned to the main room, eying up the staircase. The smoke stream was still there. With a little bit of reluctance, she crossed the room and turned to the stairs, staring up them with much more than just a little trepidation in her heart. It had worked for the shadow pony under the chair...

"Hey, Ugly! Come on out!" She yelled up, setting hoof on the first few stairs.

Nothing.

"Okay, so that's how it's gonna be huh?"

She ascended a few more, and while the black smoke didn't stop, the creature didn't make an appearance. The candle seemed to be holding it at bay.

Scoot made the final few stairs before the hole in the wooden construct was fully visible. Inside, the gleaming yellow eyes of the staircase pony glared back up at her, a deep hiss emanating from inside. Scoot braved sticking her head into the hole, trying to drive the beast further back. It didn't retreat, though it didn't attack either. It was just content to stay in the blackness that hadn't been illuminated by the candle's light.

"Hah. What's wrong there smoky? Afraid of the light?" She taunted, staring the monster dead in the eyes. As long as she had the candle light, it wouldn't dare make a move on her.

In response though, the creature puffed out another stream of smoke, aimed right at the tiny beacon. Scoot saw it coming and pulled back out of the hole just in time to see the candle sputter harshly. It stayed lit though, and not for the first time, she thanked her lucky stars that she'd been quick enough to react.

"Nice try." She grinned, stepping up and around the hole, turning back to face the hole as she carefully ascended the rest of the stairs backwards to keep the light between her and the staircase pony. As her back hooves hit the top landing, only then did she face forward again, hopefully well out of the monster's reach. There was a startling roar as it rose up out of the hole and bolted swiftly up the stairs after her, however...even with the candle far enough away to keep its light directly off of it, the monster didn't move any further than the top stair, it's nose or claws never reaching past to the landing.

"So you DO have a limit, eh?" Scootaloo noted, spinning around to tailwhip the monster pony in the nose. "Hah. Try and get me now." She laughed, walking off easily down the hallway.

It was the same as it had been many many times before. Applejack's room was the first on the left, Big Mac's on the right. Granny Smith's, the biggest room in the house, was furthest down the hall at the end. But the door Scoot wanted was halfway. She made for it instinctively, opening the door.

Her eyes reacted instantly as again, they were assaulted with another bright light.

Once it died down, she found herself looking in on a much younger Apple Bloom sitting alone in her room, playing around with some worn out, hand me down ragdolls. It was raining outside of the window, as if to dampen the already sad sight. She was obviously lonely as she made the dolls talk to each other. When that brought her no comfort, the little yellow filly took what must have been her favorite and crawled into bed.

"Great Princess Celestia...iffen ya have the time, could ya please send me a friend? Ah know ah've got Applejack n' Big Macintosh...but they're always so busy with the farm, n' Granny's just too old ta have any fun with. Not that ah'm not happy ta have em as mah family. Iss just that ah get kinda lonely, ya know? Anywho...thanks fer listenin."

Even Apple Bloom's bow seemed to droop as she left out her silent prayer to the Princess. Scoot almost melted to the floor right then and there as she listened to her friend's request, wondering if the Princess somehow did hear it. It was kinda by chance that she and Sweetie Belle met the filly at Diamond Tiara's party. Scootaloo almost didn't go, but Sweetie Belle had insisted on it.

And that's when they'd met Apple Bloom. Tiny little thing that she was, so afraid of everyone finding out she was still a blank-flank.

She silently watched on as the younger version of her friend nestled deeper into her covers, the first sounds of sniffles reaching Scootaloo's ears. She wanted so desperately to go up to the little pony and tell her that everything would be okay, but she knew that in a few seconds, the flashback was going to be over anyway. It didn't matter though.

Scootaloo made her way forward, stepping up next to Apple Bloom's bed. She placed her front hooves up on it, leaning in close to her friend.

"Hey there Apple Bloom." She tried.

There wasn't any response. Should she keep trying?

Scoot shook her head. Nothing she said here was going to make any difference. She'd just have to wait until she saw her again for real. As she stepped down from the bed, the room around her began to dissolve and fade away, leaving nothing but remnants of the furnishings she knew so well. And there, hung so carefully from the one lower bedpost...was Apple Bloom's Crusader Cape.

That made all three.

With the last cape in tow, stowed neatly along with hers and Sweetie Belle's, Scoot made her way back downstairs, noting that the hole in the staircase had closed up.

One place left to go.

Scoot made for the front door. As she stepped back outside onto the front porch, she was met with a mind-numbing sight.

All around her, there was nothing but the abyss. Only a sole path lead from the porch off into the night, seemingly supported by magic as it hovered over the expansive void beneath. There'd be nowhere to go if something came at her from the sky, no where to run if a creature existed in the depths of the nothingness.

There was no other choice. Scootaloo stepped off the porch and onto the rusted metal surface. She took a few paces forward, stopping to look back behind her.

The house was gone. The path ended a short few inches away from her hindquarters.

"How 'not' surprising." She muttered. Now there really was nowhere to go but forward.

And on she went.

And on.

The path didn't seem to have an ending. Scoot paused again to take out the map. The Crusader's Treehouse couldn't have been that far away. With the light of the candle down on the path, Scootaloo unrolled the paper, raising a questioning eyebrow.

The map was covered in black scribbles to the point of everything being blocked out. Only one portion remained untouched, where there was a single word inscribed in a childish writing style with an arrow that read "You are Here" pointing down at it.

Nowhere

"That's just useful." She sighed, rolling the paper back up, tucking it away again.

Scootaloo kept walking on, every so often looking back over her shoulder. Each time, the path ended just a scant few paces behind her, nothing but the vast black void spanning out as far as the eye could see. It seemed to melt into the darkness as she watched, keen on keeping her moving forward, though it never disappeared when she stopped moving.

After a bit longer, Scoot halted all together and sat down, facing the evaporating path behind her, watching as it disappeared up to that same distance before it stopped.

"Augh! This is hopeless! I'm never going to get there like this!" She cried in frustration. It went against her better judgement to use the skates, even though it would've saved time, giving that there was barely enough room to walk. Without proper wings, she couldn't just fly. It was taking too long.

Just then, a tremor shook the pathway. Scoot's attention was quickly drawn to the source, back up the path as she spun around to see the thin walkway collapsing ahead of her.

"Oh come on! That's just not fair!"

Without anywhere to run to, Scoot could only watch as the metal plates buckled and fell into the abyss ahead of her, accentuated by the shrieks of the steel being shorn away by an unseen force. Just as the last plate in front of her plummeted into the darkness, the noise ceased and the tremors stopped, leaving her standing on the last plate over the void with nowhere to go.

Scootaloo sank to the last platform, feeling utterly defeated. She lay her head down and started to cry, whether out of frustration or sadness, even she didn't know. She'd come so far...and this was it? No answers, no way home, no Apple Bloom or Sweetie Belle. Nothing. Just an endless sea of black.

"No!" She shouted, pounding a hoof down on the plate. "It doesn't end here! I won't let it!"

Again, the shrieking began as before her, back in the direction she'd come from, a large scaffolding began to build itself out of the abyss. It stretched up into the sky which was slowly transitioning into a hazy red to counterbalance the black below, looming over her ominously. After a few moments, the structure stopped, and the pathway renewed itself, leading to the metal construct.

Hesitantly, the filly stood up, staring at the beams and mesh. She tested the new walkway before her, finding it just as sturdy as before...and with a new destination ahead, or behind as it were, she sucked down the feelings that had overwhelmed her for a moment, forgetting about them.

Something about the structure seemed oddly familiar. Granted, she'd never seen anything quite like it before. Nothing in Ponyville, or in all of Equestria for that matter, could've compared to this. But it was almost calling out to her. Beckoning her forth.

The bottom of the structure held one massive platform that stretched to all four edges of the structure, with a single spiraling staircase at one edge leading up towards the top. High above, a similar platform could be seen. Every so often at different intervals, the staircase twisted around to another edge of the scaffolding before continuing its ascent.

No, there was definitely nothing quite like this anywhere in the world.

And yet...Scootaloo felt it calling her towards the top. She had a place to go. She had somewhere to be. And something about it felt like home, the most comforting feeling she'd experienced since she left the memory of her house.

Scoot began to climb.

The stairs shuddered and creaked with every step, threatening to give way underhoof, but she didn't stop. The little pony climbed the stairs, coming to the first hemi-circle that would lead her to another side of the structure.

"Are you MAD?!" A very familiar, irritating voice shouted.

"What? For doing what you can't? What you should? You KNOW this is your destiny, you stupid foal!" Another responded. One Scootaloo hoped to never hear again.

"Yes...I do..." And there...a third...much deeper and more menacing than either of the other two. "And I enjoy it thoroughly."

"Then grow up, grab your fate by the ears and show me that you can do this, or I'll End You Myself!"

Not-Dream Catcher.

"You can't! You'd fade away too! Are you suicidal?!"

Dream Catcher, being his typical self.

"Do you honestly think that I am bound to this form? I AM THIS WORLD!" Not-Dream Catcher seemed to be quite irritated, but that third voice was the one that worried her the most.

"No...I am this world. You are merely a pawn on my chessboard. You think to be able to best me at my own game? That would make a most wonderful story to tell, don't you think? The apparition who thought he could defeat the master of nightmares! Ha! What a tale that would be!"

Soul Weaver.

'Oh great...just what I needed.' Scoot stopped, shrinking back against the railing as she saw two black Pegasi arguing on a beam about halfway across the structure. Not-Dream Catcher stood over the cowering form of his opposite self, who seemed to be having conscience issues as he fought back and forth with the voice in his head.

"No! I am no nightmare bringer! I fight them, I don't help them! That's what a dream catcher does!"

"You are a fool. Embrace it! It's much more fun when you do. Just think of all the wonderful stories we'd have to tell everypony! And oh, the games we could invent! After all, each pony is different, we could garner so many different ideas for games, the fun could be never ending!"

"Just because you won't accept the mark of the Nightmare Catcher doesn't mean you'll ever attain the mark of your namesake, ignorant pony. There is nothing wrong with nightmares, they are a perfectly normal part of everypony's life! It's how they deal with them that is important." Not-Dream Catcher's pitch fell back to his normal, arrogant self as he explained. "So get over yourself and do what you were meant to do. Not only will both of you have fun, but it will make it so much easier for me as well."

Just then, Dream Catcher lashed out at his anti-self, knocking the Pegasus to the girder. There was a sickening crunch as he brought his hooves down on Not-Dream Catcher's wings, eliciting a cry of pain from the other.

"You want it easier? You want to know what it's like to feel like I do? You think my job is easy? Fine. Let's see how you fare with broken wings. Let's see how you do with having the most important thing in your life taken away. And should you ever find yourself wishing that you hadn't made this mistake...remember, you asked for it."

Dream Catcher, or Soul Weaver, as it seemed, brought both back hooves to bear on Not-Dream Catcher, sending him flying off the girder towards the outside of the scaffolding. Not-Dream tried to flap his wings, only to be met with a jolt of pain that put a look of shock on his face as he flew out beyond the last steel beam.

"Fall into your darkest dream, you pathetic excuse for a pony." Soul Weaver spoke as he watched the other careen towards the abyss below. "I'll be waiting for you when you get there. Then we'll really have some fun." He chuckled darkly.

Scoot took the break in the action to put a bit of distance between her and the psychopath Pegasus standing not more than thirty feet away, doing her best to sneak by in silence. Fortunately, the stairs seemed to be held in place a little better on this side of the structure and made no sound or movement when she climbed.

That, however, didn't stop Soul Weaver from taking notice.

"Ah...my little playmate returns!" He called out to her, freezing her in her tracks. "Welcome back, Scootaloo! I trust you had much fun with Singularity?"

Scoot turned to face the taunting pony, her heart skipping a few beats as she met that cool, eery gaze again.

"Not really." She replied, a little shaken. "She got what was coming to her though, that's for sure."

"I'll bet she did. So tell me little one, have you enjoyed your time here? I trust there was much satisfaction to be gained from pummeling my friends while you made your way here? That's always been one of my favorite games, you know. Watching others beat on poor, helpless creatures that are victims themselves."

"They were all trying to kill me, what else was I supposed to do?" She yelled back in defense. They had been attacking her, that was for sure. So what, she was supposed to lie down and take it?

"It is nothing more than you deserved, you selfish child. But then again, where are my manners? How can I judge when I myself was raised much the same as yourself?" He tsk'd, shaking his head. "We've both had harsh lives, my little pony. The only difference is...I found my calling. You haven't. So I guess I could have some level of pity for you."

"You can keep your stupid pity. I don't want it...cuz I'm nothing like you."

"Oh, that's rich. Nothing like me you say? You frequently abandon your friends for your own selfish desires. You cry yourself to sleep at night because even though you have friends, you feel they'd never understand you. You berate others because you think that you're somehow better than they are, yet you're just as pathetic as the rest of them. Tell me...how does that make you any different from me?"

Scootaloo didn't have an answer. Something he said triggered something inside of her, a deep seated fear that she hadn't touched on in what seemed like forever.

And then...all of the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. A rush of memories came flooding back to her that she hadn't even realized she'd forgotten. Almost as if they'd been pushed to the side and left to rot.

Her real parents. Her father, a weather patrol pony, had gone missing after a nasty storm from the Everfree Forest threatened to strike Ponyville. Between holding down two jobs just to make ends meet and the stress of raising Scootaloo alone, her poor mother's body had just given out one day. She couldn't keep up with the bills any longer...and rather than see her daughter go hungry, Scoot's mother had sent her to the orphanage.

The place that always smelled like smoke and burned wood. She could remember walking into that building for the first time, clutching the blanket that'd been left to her by a nameless pony she'd never got the chance to meet. It had been so lonely there.

Then came the adoptive families. Always wanting to help. Always doing things for 'her best interests'...yet always keeping her locked away for her own good. They were no better than pity-ponies. Always talking like she was some poor abandoned pet. Promising to keep her safe, yet always giving her back to the orphanage when she refused to open up to them. Always disappearing.

And then...her first day at Sugar Cube Corner.

When she'd first met Rainbow Dash. She'd wandered away from school that day, not really caring for learning anything after having come back to the orphanage from her latest failed adoption attempt. It had been a rough couple of weeks at that house, and all she wanted to do was escape.

And then, she saw her. The rainbow making pony from her favorite blanket.

Yeah...that sounded about right.

The next few images were of school again, spying Sweetie Belle for the first time, and quickly becoming friends with the unicorn. And then Apple Bloom at Diamond Tiara's party.

"So you finally realize what's going on, do you?" Soul Weaver smirked, snapping her out of her memories. "You're just an unwanted filly, trying to scrape by in a world that could care less about you. Such a sad, heart wrenching tale, don't you think? Those are my most favorite." He wiped a mock-tear out of his eye.

"You shut your stupid face!" Scootaloo screamed at him. "You don't know anything about me!"

"Oh?" He remarked casually as he hopped from beam to beam easily, closing the distance between them. "But I do. I know that you lead those other two idiot fillies around because it makes you feel better having somepony around who'll never be as fast as you. That way, you won't feel bad if you never live up to your idol's image."

"That's not true! Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom are my friends!"

"Then why do you keep abandoning them to chase after Rainbow Dash?"

That hurt. That hurt deep.

"I don't. I always go back to my friends. I love them. They're the only family I've got." She replied, not as loud as before. "I'd do anything for them."

"Really now?" He grinned. "I think they'd like to hear you say that for themselves. You see...it's true, your time here is almost up. But you've got one last game to play, Scootaloo. See...there's different kinds of games. You've got party games like Pin the Tail on the Pony and Bobbing for Apples. You've got Board Games like checkers and chess. And then you've got games that take real skill and character to play. And in these games...there's always a final boss."

As if on cue, two pairs of glinting eyes appeared behind him at the far side of the structure. They wove intricately through the framework as they approached in unison, a large shadow growing behind them.

"So let me ask you this...you've got one final game to play. If you win, you make it out alive. If not...well, either way, I'll have to find a new game partner. It's just that one end is unfortunately messier than the other." He smirked on that thought as two loud roars shook the structure.

"So what do I have to do then?" She asked, feeling any ounce of resistance fading away.

"The rules are simple. You make it to the top of this structure, you win. No weapons allowed, no helpful items allowed, meaning you'll just have to leave that dreadful pack of yours here...and, well...I guess that's it. Oh...and I doubt you'll be needing those skates too. They won't be of any use. Just throw everything you've got over the side of the railing there and we can begin."

Scoot sighed in resignation, when a single thought came to her mind.

"All right. I'll play. But on one condition."

"What might that be?" Soul Weaver asked, interest glinting in his eyes.

Scootaloo pulled out the three Crusaders Capes, putting hers on and tying the other two around her neck like scarves.

"I get to keep these."

He mulled that over for a few seconds, nodding briefly.

"Very well. I doubt they'll be of much use except to clean up the mess when this is over. Might as well keep them handy I suppose."

Scootaloo nodded, looking at the bag that contained her blanket, her rain gear, the key to a house she'd never see again, the useless map.

"Throw it, if you would."

She did, watching as the bag went over the railing, feeling a pang of guilt as the blanket went with it. It fell, but caught on one of the beams jutting out of the structure.

"Now the skates, if you will my dear."

She took them off her neck and threw them over too, another feeling of regret as they missed any part of the building and fell into the abyss.

"Good. Now, if you're ready? Let the game begin!" Soul Weaver shouted, and the eyes came rushing forward.

Scootaloo didn't even bother looking as she bolted up the stairs as fast as she could run. Her little legs pumped hard, taking her around to the next side of the structure while the roaring below increased. The whole frame began to shake as whatever it was that Soul Weaver had called after her chased its prey. There was a thrumming vibration that sent Scootaloo to the stairs as she looked down, seeing a long, scaly tail take out a portion of the staircase she'd just left. Against her will, her eyes followed the tail up to a massive body supported on two giant legs that were easily making their way up through the structure. The body shook and shuddered as it climbed, but made no hesitation in its intent. Her eyes came up again to see three necks with two heads, the middle head having been severed off. The other two heads were shaped like dragons. One had a long white horn in the middle of a set of spikes that ran down the length of the neck. The other held a ragged piece of red cloth tied hastily into a bow.

Both of the heads seemed to be fighting back and forth with each other as the beast climbed up towards her, snapping and breathing fire at one another. For the moment, they seemed more interested in what the other was doing, leaving Scootaloo to get back up and gain some headway. On and on she ran, her lungs aching for the air that was coming in short bursts. She rounded another spiral case and found herself on the long climb to the next set when a jet of fire came blazing past her nose not twenty hooves ahead of her, setting the stairs aflame. They melted quickly, leaving a large gap in her path.

"Oh, tough luck Scootaloo! That's going to be hard to get around." Soul Weaver chuckled, before his head shook violently.

"Quiet, you evil vindictive monster!" Dream Catcher seemed to have broken through, slamming his head off of one of the beams that held the structure up. "Hang on! I'm coming Scootaldoo!"

"Can you at least get my name right?!" She yelled back at him, trying to figure out a way around the missing stairs when something caught her eye.

The roller skates went flying up past her into the sky, having shot up from the abyss below before plummeting back past her again. She shook her head, not quite sure she had seen exactly what she thought she saw, trying to make sense of it as she edged closer to the melted stairs.

They had cooled rather quickly, and were only mildly warm to the touch. With enough push...

She jumped, landing half of her body on the next viable stair when a roar sounded.

One of the hydra's heads was coming at her, teeth bared wide.

Scoot pulled herself up as quickly as her exhausted limbs would allow, her chest heaving now from the exertion, when she heard another roar. Risking a look, she turned to see Dream Catcher's hooves connecting with the head that had just been rushing her.

"Don't just stand there, run!" He yelled up.

"Don't you do anything stupid! I wanna kick your tail when we get out of this mess for all the trouble you've caused!" She screamed back at him before picking the pace back up, rocketing up the stairs once again.

Then, she saw a light at the top of the tower. It was getting closer at last, and the light was burning bright white. She was going to make it...

And then the monster crashed out above her, its strong yet shaking legs propelling it faster than she had been able to move. The beast latched onto the staircase with both heads and ripped it from the frame. Scoot could see the tower sliding away from her as the hydra tore the metal structure away from the scaffolding.

She wasn't going to make it. It was going to end here.

"Scoot! Keep going! Run!" Dream Catcher yelled as he mounted the head of the monster that held the horn, pulling back hard on it, steering the monster's head away from the stairs. "Go now!"

Scootaloo didn't see anywhere to go. The only place she could go now was up...straight into the beast's other head...

When she saw that the monstrosity was almost literally hanging upside-down from the scaffolding, its tail wrapped higher up in the framework...an idea popped into her head. It was crazy...and she'd probably get herself killed while trying it. But it wasn't any worse than hanging around here.

She made a run for it. Scootaloo hit the top of the stairs, jumping on top of the monster's head. She turned and ran down its long neck to its body as the beast let go of the stairs. They fell against the building with a reverberating clang loud enough to rattle Scoot's teeth, before dropping into the abyss below. But she paid it no mind. She was on it's shoulders, heading for its tail. The tail that hadn't moved. She raced up the long, scaly appendage, hooves slipping every which way as she made her ascent. Fortunately, the beast was too concerned with removing Dream Catcher from its other head as its free head blasted the horn head with a gout of fire. The other head shrieked in alarm as it was set aflame, but Dream Catcher was already gone, halfway down its neck before jumping back onto the scaffolding.

Scoot could barely contain the laughter that she knew was highly inappropriate, finally making it to the end of the tail. She landed safely on a cross beam as the tail left go, the creature squirming as it tried to douse the flames it had unleashed upon itself. But in its haste, it began to tear the entire structure apart. Scoot felt the whole thing shaking as the beast tussled with itself until finally, the first head was no longer sporting a fiery mane. It trained both heads back on her and continued to climb again, chasing the little filly. Scoot made a jump for the nearby stairs and too began to climb, the top almost within reach.

And then...she felt the wind leave her body, her ribs crunching horribly as the scaled tail connected. She saw the stairs fly by as stars drifted into her vision. And she saw the roller skates as they flew up beyond her, followed by the portion of stairs that had ripped free earlier.

'Well...nothing left to do now but give it a try...' With her mind swimming, Scoot, now sure of a plan, let herself fall headfirst towards the abyss. She took a shallow breath as her chest screamed in pain, pushing both hooves out in front of her to streamline her body the best she could. She folded her good wing back, angling her legs and let gravity do the rest.

The darkness zoomed up all around her as the beast above roared in victory. Soon, it was so black Scootaloo couldn't even see her hooves in front of her face anymore. She only hoped her guess was right. She could feel the pressure though, and it was building up all around her. Now was the time.

With a deft move, she ripped the bandages off of her sore wing, testing it. It still hurt, but her mind was too focused on the pain in her ribs to try and tell her anything different. That would have to do.

Scootaloo unleashed her wings, flapping the tiny little appendages as hard as she could, ignoring the pain in her chest. They almost literally hummed as they passed through the air, propelling her forward into the darkness. Down and down she went, feeling the pressure in front of her hooves growing stronger. The sound of air rushing around her was slowly growing fainter all the while, until even the sound of her wings grew quiet.

Then, there was a bright orange burst of light, and she found herself rocketing skyward again, being followed by a deafening roar that shook the structure to whatever foundation supported it. The wind was rushing past her so fast she nearly had to close her eyes. But her plan had worked. She was moving faster than she ever had before. Seeing the skates and the staircase had solidified it, and thankfully, her gamble had paid off. The structure was zooming by at incredible speeds, so fast that before she could blink three times, she had already cleared the top of it. Down below, Scoot saw the top platform covered in green, with a tree and a sole structure standing dead center.

The Crusader's Tree House.

As her speed boost finally began to wane, Scoot tucked her wings and turned, arcing for the platform. With careful movements, learned from studying Rainbow Dash in flight, though never tested, she tried to guide herself down as best as she could while still moving incredibly fast. It was such a rush.

Not only had she won Soul Weaver's little game...but she was FLYING. And, to top that astonishing feat off, something else caught her attention as she circled around the platform.

A giant beam of orange light had erupted sometime during her skyward climb. Upon closer inspection, Scoot followed the beam's path to see that it in fact was following her.

She had done it.

The Scootaboom.

No one was ever going to believe this. She could hardly believe it herself.

There was a flash of black back down on the platform as Scootaloo came closer, seeing Dream Catcher standing there relatively unscathed. He was waving her down, shouting something at her, but between the rush of the air and the tremendous roar of the Scootaboom, she was lucky she could hear herself think.

With a gentle flap of her wings, Scoot alighted on top of the tower, falling over immediately into a patch of soft grass as the exhaustion finally caught up with her.

"Well played, little filly."

Great.

Soul Weaver.

"It seems you've won the game. Now, I'll say that I didn't expect you to do it...but I am a pony of my word. You are free to go." He nodded, pointing up at the staircase that led to the Crusader's Tree House.

No black smoke curled up from this set of stairs. No evil dragon type monster was squirming around underneath it. There were no boiling ponies or bloated fillies in sight.

"That's it?" She wheezed.

He nodded.

"That's all. Game over."

It could've been from relief...it could've been from the fact that she'd come upon all of these memories...hay, it could've been just from the sheer exhaustion. But Scootaloo sighed and began to crawl her way towards the stairs. Hoof over hoof, she made it to the bottom and began to work her way up, one stair at a time. Each angled piece of wood jutted out, catching her in the ribs. Each rib screamed at her in agony, the throbbing in her wing all but forgotten at this point.

Step by step, she climbed until she made it, her Crusader's cape fluttering in a soft breeze. The others, tied safely around her neck, flapped gently as well. Looking up, she saw the doorway, wide open. Inside, her bedroll was laid out, a sleeping bag lying open on top of it.

Home.

Her REAL home, she noted with a start, one final memory sinking in. How long had it been since she'd moved into the tree house? Shortly after the talent show, at least. She'd been wandering from place to place, sleeping in sheds and carriage house lofts for what seemed like forever. Now, she was home.

The little filly drug herself painfully over to her sleeping bag, only to watch as it zipped itself shut before she could get in. She just wanted to sleep...sleep the nightmare away. Let the dreamworld take away the pain. She hugged both Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom's capes close, wrapping them tight around herself as a sudden chill set in. Her head began to pound intensely. She simply curled up on the floor and closed her eyes, her brain feeling like it was about to explode.

===D.W.===

"Scootaloo!" A distant voice was calling to her.

"Scoot? Scoot?! Are you okay?!" Hey...wasn't that Apple Bloom?

"Oh dear, this doesn't look good at all." And that sounded like...Fluttershy? When did they get here?

"She looks like she's havin ah nightmare."

"And she's got a pretty bad fever." Twilight's soft tones came to her ears.

"Fluttershy, is there anything you can do?"

"Well...I can try."

And then, all sound faded away, the pulsing stopped...and for once since she arrived in this crazy, hellish town, Scootaloo felt warm again.

Truth

ENDING ONE

~They say that truth is in the eye of the beholder. While I've stated earlier my personal opinions on this matter, I cannot help but find some flaw with that logic. What is true for somepony may never be the truth for another.

It is a mind-numbing conundrum, when one stops to take time out and think about it.

-An excerpt from the Book of Fillysophical Studies, by: Dr. Rhindquarters

===D.W.===

There was an almost imperceptible light cracking through a pair of shutters. The glancing beam traced across the aging floor that despite its wear still looked near new. The marks of various animal tracks had been grooved into it, a sign of all those whom had come and gone in its time.

Now, only one set of hooves graced its ancient beams as the silent yellow Pegasus watched over a tiny bundle that lie tucked safely into her bedsheets.

Scootaloo knew Fluttershy was there. There was no way to not know, given the sounds of various tasks being performed all around her, accompanied by squeaks of surprise whenever something startled the motherly figure. She didn't pay her any mind however. It was just too much of a relief to finally be back in the company of anypony that wasn't a psychotic monster out to maim and kill her. The little pony lie snuggled comfortably amidst the cotton and down feather comforter and the lacy sheet underneath, just glad to be home.

Every now and then, Fluttershy would come over and check on Scoot's temperature. Apparently, she'd been running a nasty fever for a bit, and had a rather large black and blue on her forehead. Nothing to visit Ponyville General about. Outside of that though, everypony had seen fit to leave the little filly to Fluttershy's care. If anypony could help somepony recover from minor injuries and scrapes, it was the yellow mare.

When at last she had seen fit, Fluttershy left Scootaloo out of bed for something to eat. She dogged Scoot's steps all the way through the house to her kitchen where she personally made the little pony a bowl of broth, just in case she'd come down with an unseen of yet cold too. Scootaloo sat at the table and drank her broth in absolute quiet, speaking only a grateful 'thank you' when she'd finished.

As she got up to go back to bed, Scootaloo caught Fluttershy watching her intently. The look in her eyes just begged to know what had happened, as she was sure everypony else wanted to know too. But she wasn't ready to talk about it yet. They'd all probably think she was crazy anyway. When she'd woken up the first time and asked as to the whereabouts of Dream Catcher, Twilight had merely passed him off as being a pony in a book that couldn't have existed anymore. Even after Scoot's persistent nagging, Twilight wouldn't mention anything else about him.

They probably already thought she was losing her mind.

But then again, after that awful place and the return of her memories so suddenly...she almost thought she was too.

The day passed quickly as it tends to do when one sleeps it away, and by the next morning, Scoot's fever was completely gone, the only remaining indication of her run-in with the odd Pegasus being a tiny little bruise on her forehead.

"Well...you seem to be okay. Are you sure you're feeling all right?" Fluttershy's soft tones drifted through the air like music to Scoot's ears after the nightmare as the Pegasus checked her over one last time.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Thanks Fluttershy." Scoot smiled.

"Oh, no thanks necessary Scootaloo. I'm just glad to see you're better." She returned the smile.

"Well...I guess I'd better get going. Gotta meet up with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle."

Fluttershy's eyes popped wide open at that.

"Hey now...you be careful. No extra crusading for you until that bruise is gone. I won't have you getting yourself hurt again, you understand? I mean...well...yes." She nodded as sternly as possible, which was both cute and comical, given her nature.

"I got it. Don't worry." Scoot chuckled, heading out the door of the mare's cottage. "Bye Fluttershy! And thanks again!"

Scootaloo found her scooter parked outside the front door. While still in one piece, the paint had chipped and the handlebars were slightly bent from the wreck, but otherwise it was still good to go. She grabbed her helmet, which had been slung over one of the hoof-grips, and popped it on, strapping it down. With a good kick, she pumped her wings and went speeding off towards Ponyville.

As the first few streets came in sight, Scoot sighed in relief, thankful to be home again. The buildings went whizzing by in a blur as she turned up this street, down the next, blew through town square...over the east bridge and came to a screeching halt outside of Rarity's Boutique. Inside, she could hear both Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom already, Rarity begging for some peace and quiet to do her work while the two fillies pursued whatever fun they could find.

As she opened the door, all sound died out so quickly she thought for half a second that she'd somehow wound up back in the other Ponyville again.

"Scootaloo!" Apple Bloom came bounding over, hugging her friend tightly. Sweetie Belle wasn't far behind and together, all three of them fell to the ground in a giggling fit of madness.

"Girls, please! I've got a deadline to make, and this...ruckus isn't helping me think any." Rarity moaned from behind her sewing machine as she examined a set of stitches she'd just finished...until she'd taken notice to the arrival. "Oh! Goodness me, how are you feeling little Scootaloo?"

"Much better, Rarity. Thanks!" She returned, digging herself out of the tangle of legs and hooves.

"I heard you had a pretty bad accident on your scooter. Dangerous little contraption, isn't it? It's a good thing Mrs. Cakes sent Pinkie Pie on those last minute errands or you could've been laying there all night." The white unicorn removed her glasses, setting them down on her worktable as she came over, putting a gentle hoof on Scoot's shoulder.

"Pinkie Pie was the one that found me?"

"Why yes. She saw you racing through the streets and wanted to ask you for your help carrying some things back to the Corner."

Figures. Nopony else but Rainbow Dash could've kept up with her. Except Pinkie Pie.

"Just where were you going at that time of night anyway? Home, I hope."

Scootaloo went to reply...only to catch a glimpse of a pillar of smoke reflected in one of Rarity's mirrors...a pair of gleaming blue and gold eyes watching her intently through the blackened haze.

No.

Scoot shook her head.

She wasn't going to lie. She had been on her way home in fact. The only flaw was...it wasn't her home anymore, not that she had remembered anyway.

"Yeah. We were all at Twilight's and I was on my way home. Gonna deck whoever put that rock there."

She kept her eyes low, faking embarrasment, only to look up to the mirror. The shadow pony had vanished...and whichever version of the crazy-eyed Pegasus it had been had gone too.

'I'll tell them all someday.' She thought.

"So, whuduya wanna try today, Scootaloo? Maybe...Cutie Mark Crusaders Fireponies!" Apple Bloom shouted with glee.

"Oh heavens no! Far too dangerous for fillies such as yourselves." Rarity remarked, returning to her work table.

Scootaloo laughed.

"Sorry guys. Fluttershy said no crusading until the bruise on my head was gone."

"Awww..." Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom groaned in unison.

"What...do you really wanna risk...the Stare?"

Both jumped back at the mention of Fluttershy's unnervingly powerful glare. The glare that had turned a hardened brute of a dragon into a whining bag of scales. The stare so powerful it had driven off a Cockatrice, a monster so vile that its own gaze turned ponies to stone.

"Nuh-uh. I ain't gonna make her mad ever again." Apple Bloom squeaked.

"Me either." Sweetie Belle heartily agreed, her head nodding rapidly.

"Just be careful...you could do it and not know..." Scoot smirked, crouching down, crawling towards her friends. "She's so timid and shy...it'd be too late to run once she got mad cuz you'd never see it comin...and then...RAH!" Scoot pounced on them, the two fillies letting out shrill shrieks before they all tumbled together again into a laughing fit.

Rarity looked up from her sewing and sighed, a smile slowly creeping onto her face as she watched the three of them together.

"Such good friends you all are. I'm glad that Sweetie Belle met you two."

"We're glad to have met Sweetie Belle too!" Apple Bloom's face split wide with a grin.

Scoot nodded in agreement.

"Cutie Mark Crusaders! Friends Forever!" Sweetie Bell cried out, throwing a hoof in the air.

As Scoot looked between her two friends, she remembered what she'd said back in the nightmare world, talking to the evil Dream Catcher. The words echoed in her mind with clarity...and never before had she felt so sure of their truth as she did now. This was her family, right here.

She pulled Sweetie Bell and Apple Bloom close in a large hug with a happy sigh.

"Friends forever." She agreed, winking to Apple Bloom.

As they all picked themselves up off the floor, Scootaloo started heading for the door. Her mind was tumbling with all the things she'd experienced during her stay in the Other Ponyville. Everything from the monsters, as scary and grotesque as they had been, to the memories she'd been suppressing all along. Even down to the things she'd seen that still puzzled her. But she knew that while the pieces all fit together, it was going to take time to make sense of some of them. One day, with the help of her friends, she'd understand it all.

Her decision to tell them later settled itself in her mind. She'd do it some day. Right now though, she was happy.

"Scootaloo, where are ya goin?" Apple Bloom called out.

"You wanna come here for a second Apple? Got something I wanna tell ya."

Apple Bloom shot a confused look to Sweetie Belle, but nodded and got up. She moved over to Scootaloo and together they both walked outside.

"I'm not quite sure how to say this Apple...but..." Scoot thought carefully on her words as she tried to remember the details of the scene she'd witnessed.

"Yeah? What ya wanna say?"

"Well...see...while I was knocked out, I think I saw something. Not quite sure what it was...but it made me think of you." She rubbed the back of her neck, a little embarrassed.

"Aww...you had a dream about me?"

"Sorta. Anyway, what I wanted to say was this."

Scootaloo put her arm around her friend and hugged her tight, not sure if she was giving away too much as she spoke.

"I'm sorry if I keep running off to chase Rainbow Dash. You know she's my idol. She's everything I want to be. So if I've hurt your feelings at any time because of that...I just wanted to apologize. See...I get the feeling that somepony out there wanted us to be friends. Somepony was listening all along Apple. And that's why I'm here. So if I ever do anything stupid like that, please don't be mad at me, okay?"

Apple Bloom's eyes grew wide at that, and Scootaloo figured that she must've been a bit too obvious. But she had to say it. She really had to or it was going to eat at her until she did.

"No..." Apple Bloom replied, "...I know she's important to ya Scoot. An ah'm sorry if Applejack said anythin. Ah asked her not to, but ah guess she did anyway. Thanks though. It means a lot ta hear ya say that." Apple Bloom hugged her back just as hard.

"Well...even if I'm always running off after Rainbow Dash...just remember. I'll always come back for ya." She patted Apple Bloom's shoulder before the two left go of each other.

===D.W.===

Sweetie Belle watched the scene unfold from the door, a smile on her little face. She hopped down, not really expecting Scootaloo to apologize to her too. But just the fact that she'd done it for Apple Bloom was enough.

"What's going on out there, little sister?" Rarity asked, pushing her glasses back up on her nose.

Sweetie Belle shrugged.

"Something that needed to, I guess." She replied, a warm feeling settling inside as she made her way towards Rarity. She watched her sister work expertly on the machine before her, stitch after perfect stitch being sewn into the luxuriant fabric.

"Watching to learn again, are we? You think your talent might be sewing?" Rarity chuckled.

"You think I'll ever find my special talent, big sister?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Rarity stopped for a moment, patting her head gently.

"With the help of your friends, anything is possible. Least of all finding your special talent. You'll find it in due time, don't you worry yourself about that. Now, it's getting late in the afternoon. How about we go get some lunch, hmm?"

"Do you have the time? You've got a lot of work to do on this order, don't you?"

"It's quite all right. Family before business. Now come on." Rarity smiled, urging her towards the door. "Perhaps we'll go see Pinkie Pie for something sweet, hmm?"

"Sure!" Sweetie Belle practically leapt out of her skin at that notion. She began to run circles around Rarity before her older sister could calm her down enough to get her out of the door.

...

However, not all was right with the happy little scene...as a pair of blue and gold eyes watched on silently from a vast abyss, floating amidst a violent vortex in one of the modelling mirrors...

Author's Note

Ending: Good - CANON ENDING
Ending Achievement: 1/4

Requirements:
Complete Story Mode on any difficulty on first play through.

Unlocks: (On Consecutive Play Through)
Scooter - Found in Nightmare Ponyville at site of crash
Alternate Costume - Scootaloo Express (Carriagehop) [Found in the Closet of Scootaloo's House after obtaining the Rollerskates Item]

Shadow

ENDING TWO

~So in short, after all that's been said and done here, we find ourselves still lacking information on this topic. The mind itself is such a vast, expansive place where one can easily become lost. It should be noted that one's personal, physical existence is just as important, and can just as easily fall prey to the wiles of every day life.

Accidents can occur. Tragedies do happen. So while you are studying up on the mind, be mindful of the world around you as well.

-An excerpt from the Book of Fillysophical Studies, by: Dr. Rhindquarters

===D.W.===

It was still cold. Through the night, Scootaloo had made her way inside the sleeping bag, but the chill air somehow still crept inside of her very being. She just couldn't seem to get warm. Scoot tossed and turned for what felt like forever until at last she'd fallen asleep.

But even then, her dreams would not let her rest. They were dark, just as malicious as anything she'd come across in the alternate Ponyville. The ground beneath her hooves wouldn't cease shaking, and all around her, the monsters closed in. There was no escape. No way out of their clutches. For what seemed like eternity, the little Pegasus felt the searing pain of the boiling cutie marks against her flanks, could feel the agony of the caged ponies all around her crashing down like a torrential rain. Her underside was raked raw as all around, the bloated fillies left loose their wailing shrieks, her ears and head pounding with the sound. The Staircase Ponies and the wall shadows had come in for their turn too, slashing and rending as she choked on the thick smoke.

When she thought she could take no more, the Hydra reappeared, loosing a wall of fire upon all the creatures. Somehow, Scoot felt that too; as if her entire body was caught in the furnace of the very depths of hell itself. Slowly, the tormented creatures died away, leaving her to once again face down the beast of a monster. Only this time, she couldn't move.

Scoot's body was wracked with injuries, lacerations and burns...her heart and mind broken by the monsters around her. She could only watch in horror as the head bearing the bow came crashing down on her, her hindquarters snapped shut in its jaws. The pain was unlike anything up until that point. She cried out, unable to free herself as she was hoisted helplessly in the air. The other head with the unicorn horn brought itself to bear upon her, flames licking at the sides of its mouth. The monster seemed to grin in satisfaction as its mouth opened. A wall of teeth surrounded her vision as fire hotter than anything she'd ever felt before lie just beyond the tip of her nose.

And the teeth came crashing down.

===D.W.===

Scootaloo bolted awake. Her body was stiff and sore, and her little head ached to high heaven and back. But she was alive. It had been a dream.

It took a moment for her to realize where she was as she gathered her senses to form some kind of coherent picture of the place around her. The old, worn out floors, the soft...comfortable bed. The songs of various kinds of birds chirping in the trees nearby, and the soft thump of a rabbit's foot as the little creature twitched in his bed, sound asleep.

She was in Fluttershy's cottage.

A bit of light shone through the shuttered windows as the little pony made to get up, only to have herself thrown back down into the bed by an agonizing pain from her back. Removing the covers carefully, she found the lower half of her body wrapped in bandages and a partial cast...her legs shockingly without feeling. She poked at the hard mold on them...prodded them. Nothing.

A soft pink maned head poked through the door as Scootaloo left out a wail, realizing her situation in full. Fluttershy entered quietly, knowing that she'd done her best to get the little one to Ponyville General after Pinkie had found her...but there was little help to fix the damage that'd been done in the scooter wreck. All that she could do now was sit by and watch, feeling helpless as the little filly cried her soul out.

"Shhh shh..." She tried as she walked over, putting one arm around Scoot. "There there...it's going to be okay. Don't you worry now."

Scootaloo sniffed back her sorrow, trying to convince herself that this was still a dream. But the tender look on Fluttershy's face; a look that not even the best dream in the world could do justice to...told her the truth.

"What's gonna happen now?" She sobbed, doing her best to talk through the onslaught of misery.

"Well...since we couldn't find your parents, you'll be staying with me for a while." Fluttershy nodded, nuzzling her head softly.

"That's not what I meant. I'm not gonna be able to ride my scooter anymore, am I?"

Scootaloo felt her little heart breaking as Fluttershy's ears lowered, that guilt ridden look striking her delicate muzzle. That didn't make things any better. Why did she have to feel bad over it?

"I...I don't think so, Scootaloo." Was all she said in reply.

"Where's Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom? I wanna see my friends."

Fluttershy nodded, turning towards the door.

"You just relax now, I'll go find them, okay? I'll be right back."

And with that, the mare was gone, leaving Scootaloo alone to her thoughts.

Everything was a mess. She'd survived that horrid, nightmare filled Ponyville, only to come back to this. Paralyzed at the hips. She poked her limp, plaster bound legs again, still unable to feel the small appendages. She felt her sadness suddenly flare into rage.

That stupid black Pegasus. If only he hadn't been standing there. If only she'd never have met him, none of this would've happened. She would've seen that rock. She wouldn't have crashed. She wouldn't have had to endure that horrible place. And...she wouldn't be lying here, feeling so helpless. If she ever got her hooves on that goof...she'd...

Scootaloo picked up the nearest thing she could grab and tossed it across the room. Fortunately for Angel, whom happened to be in the direct line of fire, it had only been a pillow. He scoffed indignantly for having been woken from his midday nap, hopping away haughtily towards the door. Scootaloo's eyes followed him all the way out the door, feeling the sadness set in again.

She couldn't walk. She couldn't run. There'd be no more scooter riding.

Worst of all...

No more crusading.

Scoot felt her heart drop even deeper into her gut as that notion settled in. The tears came flowing back as she fell backwards on top of the remaining pillow.

"Fluttershy, are you here?"

Scoot sat straight up again.

"Oh no..." She mouthed.

"Hey? Is anypony home?"

Rainbow Dash.

'I can't let her see me like this!' Scoot quickly fell to her side and covered herself up, doing her best to look like the missing pillow on the bed as the sound of wing beats carried up the stairs.

"Kiddo? You still here?"

Scoot froze, tucked away under the soft blankets as the door opened. She could hear the cyan pony in the room now, probably searching for Fluttershy or the little filly.

"Fluttershy? Scootaloo? Anyone?"

Wait...Rainbow knew that she was here?

"AHA! Found ya!"

Scootaloo yiped as the covers were ripped off of her, the little pony exposed.

Rainbow Dash looked down, a goofy smile perched on her lips.

"Whatcha doin under there, squirt?"

She couldn't answer her. How could she say she'd been hiding from her hero? Scootaloo just stared up at Rainbow, unable to do anything but lie there half curled up, a few tears still glistening in her fur.

"Hey now...it's not that bad." Rainbow chuckled, wiping one of the wet spots away as she sat down. "Your wings ain't broken, are they?"

Scoot blinked at that, furling and unfurling her wings. No...they were intact. Which meant...

She slowly sat up, looking Rainbow in the eyes.

"Once you learn how to use em, you'll be back to your old tricks. Well...mostly." The older pony gave a light smile, brushing Scootaloo's mane. "So ya can't walk, I know all about it already. But ya know what that means?"

"What's that?" She sniffed.

"Just means that when you DO learn how to fly...you'll be even more awesome. Apparently, according to Twilight anyway...when something happens to a pony and they lose something important, like a leg or an ear or somethin, everything else gets stronger to compensate for it. I think." Rainbow shrugged, a hoof to her chin in thought. "At least, that's what she said."

As Scootaloo sat there listening to Rainbow awkwardly trying to explain, she felt a little glimmer of hope light back up inside. That hope began to burn brighter as Rainbow got up, motioning to her backside.

"Climb on. Your front legs ain't broken, are they?" She chuckled. "We'll just have to find somethin to tie ya down with. That cast they put on ya should be strong enough to handle that. So, whadda ya say? Wanna go for a ride? We can find Fluttershy, and then take you over to Rarity's."

Scoot nodded, doing her best to maneuver herself towards Rainbow. The older pony went about removing the bedsheet from beneath the comforter, wrapping it around her underside before Scoot climbed aboard. The two of them tied it together just tight enough to keep the younger pony from falling off, but not tight enough to hurt her anymore than she was.

"Man, Fluttershy's gonna flip when she sees this...but she can't keep ya cooped up in here forever. You all set?" Rainbow asked, looking over her shoulder. Scoot nodded, and together, they took off out of the Pegasi doors on the upper balcony of the house, gliding easily through the skies of Ponyville.

Scootaloo couldn't believe it. She was finally flying with Rainbow Dash.

Well...sort of.

But it was such a feeling. It was happiness, it was intensity...feeling the wind running through her mane like never before...it was bliss. There was no abyss beneath her this time. No crazy dragon monster out to kill her. Scoot left her wings open, enjoying the breeze that fell across them.

Rainbow did her best to make the ride as smooth as possible. There'd be no shenanigans today as she carried her cargo, spotting a familiar yellow and pink ball of fluff over by Carousel Boutique.

"Hang on, we're coming down." She yelled back. Scoot nodded, holding tight as her pilot brought them down for a decently smooth landing outside of the store.

"Oh my Goodness, What are you Thinking?"

That probably would've sounded a lot more menacing if it had been coming from anyone else. However, Fluttershy wasn't known for her volume.

"The poor kid's been trapped in bed for what, three weeks already? I just thought it was time for her to get out and enjoy some fresh air is all." Rainbow returned.

Three weeks? Had it been that long?

"No, No, No! She needs to go back...how did you two even manage to pull this off?" Okay...there was some edge to that last rebuttal.

"Fluttershy...is anypony here?" Scootaloo asked from her perch.

"Hello? Who's out there?" Rarity's voice echoed out from inside the building. "And why are you arguing in front of my store? So uncivilized...can't you...Oh!"

The white unicorn came to the door, peering out to see the three ponies there.

"My word, what ever is going on here? Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo should be in bed, not gallivanting around!" She glared, obviously upset with the decision.

"Scootaloo's here?! Where?!"

Sweetie Belle came racing out the door, almost bowling her sister over. Her little head swiveled this way and that until finally she found her friend resting on Rainbow Dash's back.

"Scoot! You're okay!" She cried happily, her smile immediately turning into a questioning frown. "What are you doing up there? And where's your Scooter?"

Fluttershy gasped, bolting over to Rarity.

"You mean you didn't tell her yet?" The yellow pony glanced between Rarity and her little sister.

"Whatever for? I didn't want to worry Sweetie Belle over something that wasn't 100% certain...You think that's bad though..." Rarity spoke quietly, just barely audible as she pointed to Sweetie Belle.

Scoot saw Fluttershy's eyes open wide as she quickly put herself between Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.

"Well, that's enough excitement for one day, I think. Rainbow Dash...come back to my house with me so I can get Scootaloo here back to bed. She needs her rest."

"But why? We just got here, can't she hang out with her friend for a bit?"

"Yeah Fluttershy...can't I talk to Sweetie Belle?"

Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash froze that second.

They'd gone and done it.

Even Rarity cringed with a bit of a gasp.

Fluttershy Stared down Rainbow Dash intently, one eye practically bulging out of its socket. It was all Rainbow could do not to crumble under that gaze as she backed away slowly.

"Now." She repeated. Without so much as a reply, Rainbow Dash gently took off, Scootaloo cowering in fear of the yellow mare. Fluttershy took off too, nosing Rainbow back towards her home, Scootaloo tucked tightly against Rainbow's frame. As the three of them left, Rarity and Sweetie Belle stood there, watching on.

"Never thought she'd go That far...to use the Stare on Dash...oh dear that's just not like her." Rarity sighed. "That doesn't bode well. But perhaps its for the better." She nodded quickly. "Come Sweetie Belle, let's get back inside."

Sweetie Belle's ears drooped as she turned around.

"Aww...but I didn't even get to tell her that me and Apple Bloom found our Cutie Marks while she was asleep..." She looked over her shoulder, a bit of a guilty smile upon seeing the simple design on her flank. "I guess I'll just go over later...would that be okay?"

Author's Note

Ending: Bad
Ending Achievement: 2/4

Requirements:
Complete Story Mode on any difficulty on consecutive playthrough.
Do Not Attempt to contact Sweetie Belle through the Mirror in Alternate Ponyville Basement.
Do not take Sweetie Belle's Crusader Cape.

Unlocks: (On Consecutive Playthrough)
Mini-Game - Scoot's New Wheels
Alternate Costume - Wheelchair Scoot (Found in Grannie Smith's Room in Alternate Ponyville)
Chain Crop - A riding crop with three chain links on the end. Found in Sweet Apple Acres Barn in Alternate Ponyville.

Acceptance

ENDING THREE

~One emotion found as a constant between both the real world and the subconscious is Bliss. It is a state of mental elation, in which the brain perceives only the best and happiest outcomes. Such as it is, this feeling is one of the most confusing as it will often strike for sometimes seemingly no reason at all.

However, nopony can argue that while the most irrational of the feelings (in my professional opinion), it is also the one most sought after, and usually the hardest won, second only to satisfaction.

-An excerpt from the Book of Fillysophical Studies, by: Dr. Rhindquarters

===D.W.===

Scootaloo awoke to shuttered windows with a washcloth draped over her forehead. It was pleasantly warm, despite the little light that streamed through the wooden slats. The floor itself seemed to be radiating just the right temperature up through the bed she found herself on. Even the comforter tucked in around her apparently knew just how much heat to keep in and leave out as it rose and fell with her light breathing.

Sitting up, the little filly gently brushed the cooling cloth away from her forehead, gradually becoming aware of her surroundings. The little sleeping bunny at the foot of the bed stirred too, sitting up and rubbing his eyes blearily. He took a single look over at her and then resituated himself in the blankets...before bolting up right, his eyes boring into her for half a second before bolting off out the door.

"Angel Bunny? What am I doing at Fluttershy's?"

Scoot pulled the covers back, hopping out of bed. She was pleasantly surprised to find that all the pain had subsided, her wing was fixed and not throbbing. It was almost as if the entire ordeal had never happened, aside from a slight bump on her head. She poked at it gingerly, feeling only the most minute twinge of a bruise biting back at her thankfully.

"Oh Angel, what is the matter?" Fluttershy asked the insistent bunny as he forcefully pushed her through the door. "Dear me, Scootaloo! Are you all right now?" The yellow Pegasus flew over to her, instantaneously fretting about every little detail from her scuffed hooves and bruised head to every tiny little feather out of place in her small wings.

"Yeah, I feel great." She replied. "Like a million bits!" Scoot smiled back warmly.

"Good. You gave us quite the little scare there. Don't you know that riding full speed through Ponyville on that scooter is going to get you really hurt one day?" Flutter sighed, a grin creeping on her motherly face.

"I'm sorry. I guess I should've paid more attention to where I was going." She sheepishly replied, rubbing the back of her head. Her mind shot back to her first run in with that crazy dream pony...and then to their face to face head on collision.

"So you're sure you're feeling all right?" Fluttershy's gaze came down, nearly stare-like, snapping her out of her momentary daze.

Scoot shook her head to clear it of Dream Catcher, laughing lightly.

"I'm fine Fluttershy. Don't worry about me. Thanks for helping me out though. How did you guys know where I was anyway?"

"Pinkie Pie saw you crash. She was following you after you left Twilight's. Apparently, she needed help for a party she's planning and wanted to ask if you would help her with some decorations. It's all done now though, so everything's fine."

"She did? Did she see anypony else?!" Scoot immediately stiffened.

"I...I don't think so. You were the only one there I think."

"She didn't say anything about a black pegasus? Two different colored eyes? Violet mane, broken wings?" Every question brought her closer to Fluttershy until they were nose to nose. The yellow mare began to back down under the questioning until she was backed into a corner with nowhere to go.

"No..." Fluttershy squeaked as loudly as she could.

Scootaloo sighed and turned around, knowing that she'd probably just sounded entirely crazy...

"So...Pinkie's throwing a party huh? What's the occasion?" Scoot's eyebrows raised, trying to draw attention away from her outburst.

"Well...Twilight passed her exams. And we all know Pinkie: Any reason to party is a good one." Fluttershy replied as she slowly got up again. It had worked.

"Yeah. Pinkie Pie is so random." She agreed.

Scoot moved towards the door. She made for the stairs, being accompanied by Fluttershy downstairs as the two entered into her spacious living room. Animals of all sizes lay here or there, still sleepy from the night that had just passed, some just rousing while others continued to doze away.

"Hey...did anyone grab my scooter by chance?" She asked quietly as she crept towards the door.

"Yes. It's outside waiting for you. Just do be a little more careful, all right?" Flutter nodded, patting her head softly so as not to irritate the bruise.

Scootaloo gave one last thank you before she left, finding her scooter parked outside with her helmet strapped to the one handle. Surprisingly, the little vehicle looked almost immaculate, aside from a tiny scratch in the paint. With a grin of satisfaction, she donned her helmet and hopped on, speeding off towards town.

As she rounded a corner, Scootaloo met a familiar sight and came skidding to a halt.

Before her, she stood opposite of the direction she'd been coming the night she crashed into that stupid pony. It took a moment in her mind to register the scene as what it was, but when it finally clicked she began to pour over the crash site with every bit of urgency she could muster.

There was the blasted rock. And the window that he'd been staring in.

There was the skidmark.

And over here...another from where she must've landed and rolled.

But no other hoofprints.

Everything else was there. Except any trace of Dream Catcher. It was as if the crazy-eyed pony had never been there at all. But she was sure of it. She knew. He HAD been there.

…

So why was there no trace of him?

It infuriated her. So much to the point that she stamped on the spot he'd been standing angrily, hard enough to leave a small rut in the ground. Rocks. And now potholes. Just like her life.

Fortunately though, she thought, some of those rocks had been cleared, and a good portion of the potholes had been filled. That thought helped clear her head as she mounted her scooter again, zipping off toward Rarity's place. Swerving around corners, dodging the morning ponies as they attempted to brush off the sleep of the prior evening. Zigzagging left and right through town square, over the bridge towards the boutique.

She pulled to a stop, leaving her helmet there as she stepped up to the door and knocked.

A few seconds of silence passed and she was almost tempted to knock again when a rough crash exploded from inside the building. Scoot took a few steps back, unsure of the cause when Rarity stumbled out the door, a bowl of hot soup flying over her head...

Straight onto Scootaloo.

"Yeeeeeeowch! What's the big deal Rarity?!" Scoot jumped back, shaking herself of the scalding liquid.

"Oh my...I'm sorry Scootaloo! I was on my way to Sweetie Belle when you knocked...so I tried to turn around and fell down the stairs. Please, are you okay?"

Scoot huffed the last bit of soup out of her nose and nodded.

"Is Sweetie Belle okay?"

Rarity picked herself off, shaking free of the dust and soup herself.

"She's been asleep all day. The poor thing's had a right dreadful fever ever since last night. I heard you wound up in a tragic accident as well! And to top it all off, it also appears that Apple Bloom is sick too, if Applejack is to be believed. My goodness, it's just been a horrid night for all three of you, hasn't it?"

"Sweetie Belle AND Apple Bloom are sick?" Scoot's mind began to wander back to the previous evening. They'd both seemed all right when she left. "Can I see Sweetie Belle?"

"I'm sorry Scootaloo, but that is out of the question. I don't want you to be getting sick too, after what happened last night. Your parents would just die if they found out."

Scoot winced a bit, only letting the comment slide off of her after a few brief seconds.

Yes...her mother may have been angry. Her father...who knows. But as much as the truth hurt, it didn't matter anymore. Scootaloo took care of herself now. A fact she was rather proud of, now that her mind accepted it.

"As is, Mother is already upset with me over this incident. I was supposed to be watching her this weekend...and she ends up in bed with a high fever. It's a wonder her and father haven't come over to take her home yet. But that's quite enough of that." Rarity sighed, levitating the bowl off of the ground.

"Well...tell her I hope she gets better soon." Scoot nodded. "After they get better, I've got a whole new bunch of ideas for our Cutie Marks!" She thought back to the nightmarish creature of the otherworld...its marks boiling on its own hide. As sick and twisted as it had been...the creature did inspire, she thought with a sick sense of satisfaction at her ideas.

"I will be sure to do that. Now go on. Run along little one."

Scoot nodded, popping her helmet back on as she took off, leaving Rarity in the dust both figuratively and literally, if the exasperated cry of irritation the older pony left out was anything to go on.

Scootaloo made for the Crusader's treehouse, not stopping until she got there. She'd swing by and see how Apple Bloom was fairing later on. For now though...her mind was spinning with new ideas for the Crusaders to try out. Running up the stairs and flinging the door open, she quickly rolled up her bedroll and stashed it away under the loose floorboard...conveniently, Apple Bloom had missed a few nails here and there...and brought out the table, covering it with paper as she began her latest crusade ideas.

===D.W.===

Rarity managed to clean herself up rather quickly as she began her trek back upstairs with another bowl of soup. Quietly, she nudged the door open to see her sweet little sister lying in bed, a damp cloth covering her flushed white face. The poor little dear looked so tired, so hurt, that it almost brought tears to Rarity's eyes. As she crept up to the bed and set the bowl down on the bedside stand, she brushed a hoof gently over Sweetie Belle's face, watching her sleeping sibling with a pang of worry.

Sweetie Belle's face contorted amidst what Rarity could only assume to be a fevered nightmare. She tossed this way and that occasionally, murmuring something nonsensical every now and then about monsters. It was all Rarity could do to keep from rousing the little filly to tell her that it was just a dream. But no...Fluttershy had desperately insisted that Sweetie Belle be left to sleep it off when Rarity had asked her over.

And who knew better how to care for small creatures than Fluttershy?

With a sigh, the unicorn turned and left the room, hoping that the fever would blow over. She didn't want to have to explain to her parents why Sweetie Belle was in Ponyville General if it came to it.

As she walked away, Rarity almost did a double take, running back into the room.

She turned and looked to the right, noting the mirror.

No, it had to have been her imagination. Nopony could be in the mirror. That was just childish nonsense.

But as she left again, quietly closing the door behind her, she could swear that for an instant...there'd been somepony there.

Somepony with oddly colored eyes and a striking violet mane...

Author's Note

Ending: Good+
Ending Achievement: 3/4

Requirements:
Complete Story Mode on any difficulty on consecutive playthrough.
Attempt to talk to Sweetie Bell AND Apple Bloom in Alternate Ponyville
Have all 3 Crusader Capes in inventory upon completion of the story.

Unlocks: (On Consecutive Playthrough)
Alternate Costume - Shoetaloo (Obtainable in Dream Catcher's house in Regular Ponyville) [Scootaloo will pull out a shoe and begin to chew on it if left idle for too long]
Friendship Cannon - Obtainable in Sugar Cube Corner in Alternate Ponyville

Finality

ENDING FOUR

~The world of dreams...a subconscious mirror to the world of reality. Or at least, that's what some believe. After all, one can observe a sleep-walker performing normal, everyday tasks as though they were wide awake.

But then again, could it be that perhaps...when the physical eyes are asleep and the mind's eye is awakened, and assuming that the body itself has neither a perfectly true sleeping nor waking state, that a pony can experience and directly influence the real world through the actions they take and visions they perceive in the dreamscape?

-An excerpt from the Book of Fillysophical Studies, by: Dr. Rhindquarters

===D.W.===

A familiar voice carried through the mouth of a monstrosity that stood before her. Scoot held tight to a hammer left over in the emergency toolbox from the renovations to the clubhouse.

At her feet lie a small, horribly disfigured creature; its had been head bashed in and its body broken...surrounded in a vile, viscous puddle of its own liquids.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

The hideous three-legged shadow creature stepped forward, its teeth bared with smoke erupting from both sides of its mouth and nostrils. The mane on its neck was alight with a fiery blaze as was its tail, and Scootaloo could barely breathe through the smoke. It was all she could do to keep the stinging wisps out of her eyes long enough to focus on the beast. She swung hard and missed, the blow going wide and sending her off balance.

In a flash, the monster was there and had caught her in its front limbs, holding her up off the ground while its mouth split into a menacing grin. Scootaloo burst upwards, swinging her hammer again and connected this time, the face of the creature giving out a harsh snap as bones broke. It reared back and bellowed in pain. As it did, a pair of flaming wings larger than any Scoot had ever seen before exploded out of its back, lighting up the inside of the clubhouse in a blazing inferno that washed over all that the fiery feathered protrusions touched.

"Stay back! I've beaten things way bigger than you with less!" She yelled at the monster, steadying herself back on her own four hooves.

Just then, the door swung wide and another of the monsters appeared behind the first. It was much larger than the other and of similar structure, however this one loosed a harsh grating sound as it stared down at her with beady little green eyes.

And then...another. And another.

Soon, the entire front half of the clubhouse was filled with the smoking atrocities, ranging in size from just shorter than Scoot herself to the massive beast that had accompanied the one that she'd just escaped from. Each one was slightly different than the last.

"Jus whut is goin on in there?" Yet another called, apparently still outside.

"Jeeze, you guys sure picked a time to get all talkative on me. Why can't you just grumble and growl like the rest of the monsters?" Scoot snarked, really being fed up with this horrid world. She awoke some time ago to the sound of somepony outside the treehouse and had thought that she'd finally made it out of the nightmarish dream...but when the outsider had entered, she found herself sorely mistaken.

"I don't believe this! Look what you've done, Scootaloo! Do you have any idea...it's just incomprehensible! How could you?!"

"I only did what I had to do to keep creatures like you away from me! That's all! You just wanna hurt me some more! I'll bet you're working for that jerk Soul Weaver, aren't you?" Scoot hollered back.

"Soul Weaver?" One of the mid-sized monsters asked, looking to the others. The ones that exchanged glances with it either shrug or shook their heads.

"You know who I'm talking about! He's the pony that lives in Dream Catcher's head!"

"Dream Catch...oh for Celestia's sake, you're STILL on about him?" The one furthest to the left asked.

"Nevermind that, we have to get her out of here now! Somepony, get the cart from the barn, quickly!"

Scoot braced herself, backing up against the far wall below the window.

"Oh no, I'm not going anywhere!" She hissed past the hammer in her mouth.

"You're going to come with us whether you like it or not! You've got trouble to answer for, little filly!"

Scootaloo risked taking her eyes off of the monsters for the moment. None of them had tried advancing just yet, but they still blocked the doorway. There had to be another way out. She turned her head to the window, finding another steel pathway out over the abyss connected to the clubhouse just below the outer sill. That could be her chance...

"Besides that, you're pretty beat up yourself...maybe we should get you checked up as well?"

Scoot turned and opened the window.

"Hey, wait...what do you think you're doing?"

"You wanna get me checked up huh? Maybe you should start worrying more about yourselves than you should about me...or what's gonna happen to you if you try to follow me." Scoot sneered back at the collective group of monsters as she climbed into the open portal.

"You can't be serious...you'll get yourself killed! Come down from that window!"

"Try and make me!"

Scoot dove as the monsters began to advance on her, two or three standing back with their fallen comrade and the one she'd bludgeoned hard.

"Don't do it!"

"Wait!"

Scooatloo's heart jumped with victory as she saw the metal path out before her, stretching beyond the darkness into a bright twinkling light...

Until the entire thing vanished in an instant...and she felt herself falling into the void below.

===D.W.===

"SCOOTALOO!" Apple Bloom raced over to the window, only to hear a loud thump and a sharp crack as her friend hit the ground. She hopped up to the sill and looked out, only to pull away at the sight.

"Ohb mahh, teww mwe shhhe didn't..." Rainbow Dash's eyes went wide as she bubbled out from behind her broken nose, holding a hoof against it to try and quell the bleeding. Fluttershy stood by her, the color slowly draining out of her at the scene in front of them.

Sweetie Belle laid quiet on the ground, not moving as Rarity moved in to caress her younger sister's form, the little unicorn's horn broken and crushed into a fine powder all over her bloodied face.

"We juss...found her sleepin up here..." Apple Bloom sniffed as she came back over. "It's been like this for a while, so we didn' think nuthin' of it. Buh when Sweetie Belle tried ta wake her up..." She began to tear up.

"It's okay Apple Bloom...you couldn't have known." Twilight responded as she motioned Fluttershy over to Sweetie Belle. "How long has she been staying here? And why didn't you think to tell anypony sooner?"

"Ah didn' think thur was anythin wrong with it...ah mean, she had ta have a good reason ta not go home if she didn' wanna...right?"

"Not like it matters now anyway. She won't need a home after this." Rarity's eyes were well past watered, her typically perfect composure and grace in shambles as she made room for Fluttershy next to Sweetie Belle. "Just look what that little barbarian did to my sweet, innocent little sister..."

As Fluttershy and Rarity kept a watch over Sweetie Belle, Twilight went back outside. She climbed down the stairs to the clubhouse and stopped at their base, seeing a little orange lump out of the corner of her eye. A little bit torn up at herself for not having realized it sooner, Twilight walked over to Scootaloo and stood there for a moment.

"And everypony says that I'm supposed to be the smart one. If I was so smart...why couldn't I see that you didn't have a home or a family? It never once crossed my mind. And then you got wrapped up in this Dream Catcher, whoever he was...what happened?" Twilight thought to herself, making up her mind to take the matter into serious study.

"Stho...isth she...?" Rainbow Dash asked from behind Twilight as she descended the stairs.

There was no mistaking the glazed look in the little pegasi's eyes, the angle of the neck. The still, unmoving chest.

Twilight nodded.

"Jeezth. Whaddaya think happened?"

"I dunno Rainbow. But I intend to find out." Twilight sighed, a determined look in her eyes as she turned back towards the farm, the sound of Applejack's wagon coming at a hurried pace. The orange mare's hat appeared over the hillside before she came galloping full on, Rarity and Fluttershy already carrying Sweetie Belle down the stairs gingerly on top of Big Mac's back.

Rainbow Dash watched them load the injured filly into the cart, following them with her gaze as they took off at a pace as urgent as the terrain would allow. Once they were out of sight, she returned her attention to the broken form before her.

"Hey kiddo..." Sheepishly, she sat down next to Scootaloo. "Guessth thisth meansth that I don't get to sthee you grow up to be like me, huh?"

A little tear formed in her eye as she lay her head down next to Scoot's, nuzzling the little filly's muzzle softly. Checking to make sure it was done with its faucet works after the hammer blow it'd received, she left go of her broken nose, her mouth contorting as she tried to keep composed. She curled up tightly around the tiny pony, brushing a few stray strands of Scootaloo's mane from her face

"Sorry I wasn't there for you when you needed me. But hey...you got me all to yourself right now. So...what's up squirt?" She sniffed painfully, attempting to smile a bit. "Guess you finally gave me what I deserved for not payin' attention, huh? That was some hit. If I was anypony else...hay, even still...I'd say that was pretty awesome, even if you didn't know what you were doing." Dash left a small chuckle as she recounted all the times she'd either ditched or outright avoided the little pegasus. And then came the night of the comet and the picnic...when she'd used her...like some common slave.

She couldn't hold it in anymore. Rainbow left go of the sadness that was building up, crying openly now into Scootaloo's mane. It barely registered in her head when she felt somepony nuzzling up beside her...all she could do was think of how she'd failed her biggest fan.

"Some idol I turned out to be." Dash choked out in-between sobs.

"It's not your fault, Rainbow. Nopony saw it coming." To her surprise, Fluttershy's voice broke pitch a couple of times as she tried in vain to keep her own emotions hidden.

"Doesn't matter now, does it? I screwed up. And this time...I can't fix it. What am I supposed to do Fluttershy? I don't think anything has ever hurt this much." Dash continued to mourn the loss, the ground beneath the three slowly becoming wet with regrets unleashed.

Her heart sank when there came no answer. Instead, her ears were met with a wavering attempt at the lullaby Fluttershy often sang to comfort her animals as the pink maned pegasus attempted to hum the tune, albeit poorly despite the fact that she herself was holding her own sadness away for her marefriend's sake.

Rainbow choked up at that and began crying anew, her head buried in Scoot's mane as the two lie there with the little filly until at last she could shed no more tears. Fluttershy never stopped humming though, and for that, Dash was thankful as it gave her the strength for one final goodbye.

She sat up slowly, wiping the tears from her eyes as she reached out and put a hoof to Scoot's face, closing the filly's eyelids.

"Sleep tight squirt. And when you get to wherever you're goin...even though I wasn't the best of what I shoulda been to ya...show em you learned from the best. Make me proud kiddo."

Author's Note

Ending: Bad+
Ending Achievement: 4/4

Requirements:
Complete Story Mode on any difficulty on consecutive playthrough.
Do not attempt to talk to Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom in Alternate Ponyville.
Have only Scootaloo's Crusader Cape in your inventory upon completion of the Story.

Unlocks: (On Consecutive Playthrough)
Alternate Costume - Cutie Mark Martyr (Obtainable by picking up Scootaloo's Crusader Cape after achieving Bad+ Ending)
Alternate Costume - SweetieBloom Hydra (Awarded for achieveing Bad+ Ending)
HellFire Breath - Useable Only while wearing SweetieBloom Hydra costume.

Prelude

~For every day of sunshine, a day of rain will come. Inevitable. Unavoidable. Arm thyself for these days as they draw nigh, for both old...and young alike.~

-An excerpt from the Book of Fillysophical Studies, by: Dr. Rhindquarters-

===D.W.===

Books flew off the shelves like birds taking flight as three small blurs spun 'round in the madness and cacophony they created. From somewhere beneath a pile of heavy tomes and assorted literature, the sounds of a muffled voice could be heard crying out against the travesty being dealt to the library. With each new book checked, double checked and discarded, the pile grew ever larger and the complaints more muted. The tips of a clawed hand flecked in violet scales could barely be seen as it attempted to gain a handhold in the pile; extrication of its owner being its primary goal.

As one distinct cyclone of multicolored madness, the storm of energy gradually blew itself out to reveal the quaking, moaning and overall sore and defeated figures of three fillies. One swung suspended by her stomach, hanging through the rungs of a shelf-ladder. Another lie atop a relatively smaller mountain of knowledge. The third merely collapsed, propping her head atop the reading table in the center of the main room, her muzzle buried unenthusiastically in the spine of an overturned book.

Scootaloo sighed for what must've been the two-hundred thousandth time that day. Closing the musty old book, she roughly tossed it aside much to Spike's dismay, and continued to pull book after book off the shelves of the library's walls.

"There's gotta be an answer here somewhere as to how we can get our Cutie Marks! Keep looking Crusaders! If it's not here, we'll just have to tear apart every bookcase in Ponyville until we find one!", She shouted to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle.

"But ah thought we already tried gettin' our Librarian Cutie Marks, Scootaloo?", Apple Bloom called out from across the library atop the stack of books.

Scootaloo shrugged it off and kept going, pulling book after book off the shelf before her. It seemed like forever had passed since Diamond Tiara's cute-ceañera, yet the three of them were still no closer to finding their special talents. She'd put up with that fiasco well enough as they continued to suffer a series of setbacks that had her wondering that perhaps their special talent lie buried somewhere in the world's largest puddle of tree sap; finally finishing up by wasting an entire day by not only having to listen to all of the older ponies tell their cutie mark stories...but being able to at last hear how a real cutie mark was earned.

Rainbow Dash had been the one to regale the girls with that story, and it was every bit as awe-inspiring as the pegasus that told it with such dramatic flair that she would've given Rarity a run for her bits if the fashonista had been able to get a word in edgewise.

'I'm gonna be that cool one day...' Scootaloo's mind was already picturing it. Flying through the air with her idol, waiting for Dash to hit the Sonic Rainboom, just so Scootaloo could come from behind with her newest patented trick...the Scootaboom!

"Yeah..." She thought aloud dreamily.

"Girls?" The voice from beneath the largest pile of books was growing steadily louder as its owner battled against the climb.

"Just wait for me Rainbow Dash..."

"Hey Girls...?"

"I still don't see anything Apple Bloom! Where else could it be?"

"Check that stack over there, Sweetie! It's lookin' mighty suspicious!"

"GIRLS!!!" Spike snapped, as loud as he could, managing to shout over the noise they were making. The little purple dragon dug his way out of a mountain of texts and scrolls, heaving exhaustively as he finally extricated himself from the mess.

Scootaloo shook herself out of it, looking over at Spike.

"Look, I know you're trying to find your special talents. That's cool and all. But if Twilight comes home and finds this place a mess, she's gonna kill me," He put a hand to his forehead. "So if you don't mind...I gotta clean this up before she turns me into a handbag."

Sweetie Belle looked over at Apple Bloom and shrugged. Scootaloo just sighed...AGAIN...

"This is making my head hurt anyway. Why don't we go get something from Sugarcube Corner? Rarity gave me a couple of bits so we could have some fun today." Sweetie Belle chimed in.

"Okay!" Apple Bloom shouted, making a beeline for the exit. "Cutie Mark Crusaders...Ta' Sugarcube Corner!"

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIT!!!" Scootaloo hopped in front of the door. "We can't stop now! At this rate...we'll be Blank Flanks forever!" She pouted a bit, eyes downcast with a hint of irritation behind them. "We can't keep getting distracted."

There was a loud belch, and a quick burst of green flame as Spike coughed up a letter, catching everypony's attention. He snatched the parchment from the air with a stifled grin of embarrassment at its method of arrival and unrolled it quickly to read, stopping on a few choice parts.

"Exams done...B+...back in a few hours?! Oh No!" He wailed, running around in circles. "WhatamIgonnado,WhatamIgonnado,WhatamIgonnado,WhatamIgonnado..."

Scootaloo let loose a little 'pfft' as she turned towards the door.

"On second thought...that's not such a bad idea Sweetie Belle. Let's roll before Twilight gets back and sees what we did to the library."

She pushed open the lower door to the building, only to feel teeth clamp down on her tail. Turning around, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom AND Spike were holding her in place.

"Oh no you don't. You three made this mess...you gotta help me clean it up!" Spike insisted.

"Yeah, we can't leave Spike ta fix this by himself. We did kinda wreck the place. Applejack'd be right sore with me iffen she found out ah ran off on Spike after something like this." Apple Bloom added.

"I told Twilight I would make sure nothing happened to this place like...a million times, and you're not gonna get away that easily Scootaloo. If you do...Twilight will know who wrecked the library." The little purple dragon adamantly crossed his arms after letting go of her tail.

"Augh! Fine. Let's get this over with so we can get back to earning our Cutie Marks." Scootaloo resigned, irritation dead set as she sauntered back into the library.

===D.W.===

"I know who you are...and I know what you're up too. I swear to you, I won't let this happen. It's already gone unchecked twice through some other magical means...and by my wings it won't happen again without my knowledge!"

A dark silhouetted figure stood before a mirror in a dimly lit, must filled room. All about were strewn various artifacts of questionable nature. A vial of white, sparkling liquid...a thick red tome bound in what appeared to be cured tree bark with an odd symbol on it. Bent pipes and broken planks of wood; some with nails and others without, lay scattered across the floor. Music boxes of all shapes and sizes in various states of completion dotted a workbench, tools for their repair lying haphazardly amidst the cluttered station.

"Ti gnippots on si ereht. Nrael ouy lliw nehw tub?" The strange language echoed hollowly from a rather ornate looking mirror, situated against one hastily painted sheetrock wall.

"I don't care!" The black Pegasus shouted back. "I will find a way, one way or another."

"Seramthgin eseht fo esuac eht era ouy taht gniwonk, uoy tsurt lliw ellivynop ni seinop rehto eht taht kniht yltsenoh uoy od? Od uoy lliw tahw neht?"

The pony ruffled his bandaged wings for a moment, eyes cast down in thought before he lay down and covered his head with his hooves.

"I don't know..." He shivered harshly, violet mane and tail lying disheveled against his thin frame.

"Eerf evil dna ti tpecca. Gnireffus dna niap esuac ot denitsed era uoy. Si kram eituc ruoy tahw wonk I."

The colt shook his head again.

"That's not me...it can't be. How can I enjoy something like that? I'm not a monster!" He cried back at the mirror, bolting up and pressing his muzzle against the mirror as if trying to go nose to nose with the figure within.

He stood there for a few moments as the light from the mirror faded and died, the nightmarish world from the otherside disappearing from view...taking with it that horrid mockery of a pony inside it. When he at last looked up again, he gazed without really seeing into the dying light of the fading image in the mirror. But he didn't need to see it to know exactly what was at work. He knew the consequences and the outcomes for all of it. It chilled him to no end to think of what new ravages this would bring.

"That can't be me..."

===D.W.===

Night had fallen by the time the fillies and Spike had cleaned up the library. Fortunately for them, Twilight hadn't arrived home in time to see them cleaning up the aftermath of their Cutie Mark Cyclone. With just enough time to still stop at Sugarcube Corner before it got too dark, the three fillies made their way hastily through the dying activity of the town's daily life..

"So, what do you think Mrs. Cakes has baked up today? I really hope its some of her Blueberry Pastries. Those are my Favorite!" Sweetie Belle cried, skipping merrily through the streets.

"Nah...Applejack's pies are better." Apple Bloom called out from behind.

"You're just saying that because she's your sister." Scootaloo retorted, keeping an even pace at the back of the pack. She was too tired to pull them on her scooter, which trailed behind her on a tow-rope. She kept back a bit to avoid getting caught up in the ruckus her friends were causing as they walked, hoping to avoid further trouble.

'I guess a slice of pie would be good right about now.' She though absentmindedly. So lost in thought was she that Scoot didn't even have time to notice the door in to her left swinging open rapidly until it caught her full on in the muzzle.

"OW!" She cried, falling back against her scooter dazed.

"Oh! Oh dear, My apologies! Please, are you all right?"

Scootaloo rubbed her nose, looking up at the source of her immediate pain, only to be met with a pair of mismatched colored eyes. A blue eye and a gold eye stared down at her from a black void that seemed to be hovering just inches above her face. Panicked, Scootaloo back-pedaled away from those creepy eyes until her vision came into focus more.

A black pegasus with a deep violet mane stood before her, his wings bandaged up at his sides framed by a concerned look on his face.

"Hey...watch where you're swingin your door, Mister." She replied, standing shakily.

"I'm so very sorry, I didn't hear anyone out here. My deepest and most sincere apologies my young filly." He continued.

"Scootaloo! Are ya all right?" Apple Bloom came trotting back quickly, coming to stand beside her rather flat-nosed friend.

"Scoot! What happened?" Sweetie Belle was still opposite the pony, but her concern rang clear enough.

"I'm fine Sweetie Belle." Scootaloo called out. "Who are you anyway, Mr?"

The pegasus stepped back, almost right onto Sweetie Belle whom yelped and sidestepped the clumsy pony.

"Me? I'm...I'm nopony. Don't worry about me. I'm just glad you're all right." He said, those dual-toned eyes still unnerving Scoot. "If you're sure you're okay, I must be on my way. It's getting rather dark out you know. Still have a lot to do."

He turned quickly, waving a fare-well...and that's when Scootaloo saw it. She thought for a moment that her eyes were playing tricks on her, but sure enough...a double take proved her sight correct.

"Well, he was a strange pony." Sweetie Belle whispered as she walked over.

"Tell me about it. He's more clumsy than...what's 'er name? The Mail Mare?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Ditzy Doo?" Sweetie Belle rubbed her head in thought.

"No, I thought it was Derpy Hooves?" Scoot came back. Suddenly realizing that she was being caught up in the moment, she put up a hoof and waved away the initial confusion. "Anyway...point proven. Guess what I just saw?"

Both fillies looked at their friend, eyes wondering just what it was.

"That pony was just like us!" She cried.

"What do you mean? He was a pegasus like you Scootaloo...I'm a Unicorn and Apple Bloom is an Earth Pony. How can he be like all of us?" Sweetie's expression proved rather blank and confused.

"I mean...he was a Blank Flank! He doesn't have his Cutie Mark!" Scoot shouted.

"What?!" Both fillies cried in unison.

"What kinda adult pony doesn't have his Cutie Mark?" Apple Bloom wondered aloud.

"I dunno...I think we should ask the others about him. He seems kinda weird." Scoot replied.

"I thought he was nice enough. I mean he did apologize for hitting you with the door, Scoot."

Scootaloo shook her head.

"C'mon girls...let's book it to Sugarcube Corner. I've got some questions and we're gonna get some answers." She grinned ear to ear, popping her helmet on and hopping onto her scooter, feeling a sense of restored energy.

"Yeah! Cutie Mark Crusaders Blank Flank Investigators!" Apple Bloom shouted as the three of them tore off with renewed vigor.

Author's Note

What started out as a side project for the Silent Ponyville Universe has grown into so much thanks to this story. I am honestly in awe at the amount of material I was able to create for myself just by coming up with this story. Now, I have an original character who has a lifetime of experiences, a unique special talent, and a family history that dates back over 1,000 years.

I hope you truly enjoy reading this as much as I have enjoyed being part of the world that my character lives in. To you, my dear readers, I give you Soul Saga: Darkness Scoots.

~DreamWeaver~