Darkness Scoots

~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.