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.