Beyond Infinity

Author's note: These next few chapters will be somewhat interactive. If you see a word that is underlined, click on it for a song, video, or image related to what is happening in the story. Make sure to right-click and open anything in a new tab.

It looked like your typical late-Autumn/early-Winter morning outside. The sky was a warm grey with clouds as far as the eyes could see. Judging by how cold I felt, snow was probably in the forecast, but I didn't bother to check. It wouldn't be affecting my plans either way.

I looked over at the other couch. Scootaloo was still sound asleep. After last night, I took her downstairs and we both went to bed without another word. I could sense that she was holding back some resentment, and that told me that she had been doing so the entire time she had been here thus far. Whether that resentment was towards me or towards the situation, I didn't know. But I figured today might help. At least, I hoped it would.

I checked my phone. It was only 7 in the morning. Fine by me. I wanted to get out as early as possible. I quietly walked upstairs and confirmed my parents were still sleeping. Good. I took a quick shower. If I was going to be in the car with someone else (or somepony else in this case), for a long period of time, I didn't want to smell like crap the whole way. I went to my room and threw a pair of jeans and a t-shirt into a knapsack, put on some sweat pants, and locked the door on my way out. There'd be no reason for anyone to go in there while I was gone.  Next, I raided the pantry and grabbed some granola bars and a banana. I grabbed a pair of vitamin waters from the fridge and added that to the collection. Finally, I grabbed my keys and my wallet, and with that I was ready to leave.

I quietly walked outside and threw everything into the backseat of my car. I started the car and turned the heat to a low, comfortable level. All that was left now was Scootaloo.

As I walked into the room downstairs where we were sleeping, I could hear her breathing softly. I thought she might have been awake by now, but I guess not. She looked happy. I hoped she was having a good dream; it'd be a nice escape for her. Hell, I could use of those myself. But no time to worry about that. I softly picked her up, taking care not to stir her too much, and made sure to grab her blanket so she could sleep in the car. "Time to go." I said to her softly. She didn't react whatsoever.

I made my way outside, gently placed her in the passenger seat, taking care to buckle the seat belt over top of her. Now we could leave.

As I pulled out of my neighborhood, it began to snow. It wasn't enough to mess up the roads, but it would be enough to slightly obscure my vision and enough to look pretty outside. Within an hour, everything would be covered in white. I couldn't help but smile a bit. No matter what happens in my life, there's something about a snowy landscape that just looks so gosh darn pretty.

We continued to drive on in silence for a little while. Eventually, I hit a point where I could take my eyes off the road and plug in my Droid for music. I scrolled through the songs endlessly. I'm sure you know how that is; you want to put it on shuffle but really there's that one song that just clicks with you. Skip, skip, skip, wait what was that? Never mind, skip skip skip.

And then I found it.

I turned the volume ever so slightly down, but I really didn't need to bother. This was a quiet song. As the lyrics hit, I softly began to sing along. I always thought of this song as beautiful, but today the lyrics were really resonating with me. It just seemed to encompass everything I was feeling and everything I had been feeling over the past few days. As the chorus hit, I began to sing with a little more confidence:

"You need to clear away, all the jetsam in your brain,

And face the truth...

Well love can make amends, but while the darkness always ends, you're still alone

So drive home..."

For a moment, I got lost in the music, and I felt at peace with the world.

**********

"Come on Scootaloo!"

Sweetie Belle was calling her. Scootaloo could see her and Apple Bloom a short distance away.

"What...what's going on?" asked Scootaloo.

"We got a surprise for you!" exclaimed Apple Bloom with glee.

"But...how did I get here? I thought...I thought I was..."

"What do you mean Scootaloo?" said Sweetie Belle. "You thought you were what?"

Scootaloo looked around. She was back in Equestria! How did this happen? Scootaloo decided to go with it and ask questions later; it felt good to be back where she belonged. "Um, nothing. So what's this surprise, girls?"

"Your mom and dad are here! They want to see you!"

Suddenly, everything else seemed to vanish. Scootaloo's jaw dropped. "My...my...mom and dad?"

"Yeah! They said they want to see you! Come on!"

At that moment, a huge smile broke out onto her face. Scootaloo didn't care what was going on or why, but she realized that having a family, a true family to turn to, it might just make all her troubles go away. "What are we waiting for then? Let's go!"

The three fillies began to run as fast as they could towards town. A moment passed, and Scootaloo realized that she was no longer running, but still moving forward.

"Scootaloo! You're flying! You're really flying!" exclaimed Sweetie Belle.

Scootaloo looked down at the ground. She looked over at her wings. She really was flying! She was doing it! "I'm flying! I'm really doing it!" she said with a huge smile. For a moment, all of her troubles seemed far away.

Scootaloo blinked.

Suddenly, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were far up ahead, and they were waving for her. She saw somepony standing behind them. Scootaloo guessed that the pony was smiling but she couldn't quite see who it was. Off in the distance, she could have sworn she saw a set of bright blue eyes. For some reason, that seemed familiar. Then, from out of nowhere, she heard a voice softly singing:

"You need to clear away, all the jetsam in your brain,

And face the truth...

Well love can make amends, but while the darkness always ends, you're still alone

So drive home..."

As the final lines faded away, Scootaloo turned. Now, all she could see was the bright blue eyes far off in the distance.

***********

Scootaloo slowly opened her eyes to darkness. She felt something soft on top of her, so she guessed she had pulled the blanket over eyes in her sleep. She could hear the voice singing again, but she couldn't quite make out what the words were. She decided to throw the blanket off of her, and saw she was in a strange room.

"Wh...where am I?" she said drowsily.

"Oh! You're awake!" said a voice. "I'm sorry, I hope I didn't wake you."

Scootaloo turned, and saw Dave holding a wheel and looking forward. He had a somewhat tired look on his face but he seemed to be doing ok. "It's alright." She looked around again. "Where am I? I don't remember this room of your...your...house..." It was at this point that Scootaloo noticed that the scene outside the window was moving. She then realized that THEY were moving! "Dave, what's going on? How are we moving?" She stood up and looked out the window. What she saw made her gasp.

They were flying.

Scootaloo could see clouds not far in front of her. It looked like they were flying through them. She looked through the same window as Dave, and it looked as if they were flying through the mountains. "Dave...what's going on?"

Dave reached down and turned a knob. Suddenly, the singing and the other strange noises seemed to fade away. "We are in what's called a car. You could say I'm the pilot. I was thinking last night, and I realized that I had promised to at least try to help you fly. And I realized I had no idea how I would do that. So, I decided to take a little adventure through the mountains. I figured we'd be high enough that if you looked for a moment, it would be pretty close to flying for you." He grinned. "I hope it was a good idea."

Scootaloo looked back out the window closest to her. There was a wall of snow as far as she could see. She looked out the window in front of her. There were other...cars?...up ahead. The sky was a little grey with clouds here and there. She looked out past Dave, out his window, and the sight was breathtaking. They were REALLY high up in the air. Far below, she could see small houses, and fields covered in snow.

It really was like she was flying.

"This...this is..." she began. She could feel tears lightly running down her face, and she smiled. "Thank you, Dave. This was really nice of you. You didn't have to do this for me."

Dave smiled in return. "Don't worry about it. You've done more for me than you know."

Scootaloo was confused. "Me? What have I done for you?"

Dave's eyes were focused straight ahead, so he didn't respond right away. He turned the wheel, and Scootaloo felt the...what was it, a car?...drift slightly to the right. Then he began to respond "Well for one, you've given me a reason to get out and make this drive today. We're going to be in here for a while, but no one will bother us. We can be as loud and as obnoxious as we want, as long as I keep my eyes on the road. We can stop wherever you want if you want to explore. And for me, I can get away from my parents, at least for a day."

Scootaloo shook her head. "You shouldn't say that. I don't even have parents to run away from."

"Don't get the wrong idea though," said Dave quickly. "I love my mom and dad; they take good care of me. It's just..." he paused for a moment. "It's just, I don't always know how to make them happy. I feel like a failure sometimes, and I don't know how to deal with that. I'm used to being successful without much effort, so for me, before you came I was going through a rough time and I really didn't know how to deal with it. That's why I'm glad I thought to make this trip. On one hand, I can get away, if only for a day or two. I can just relax and be myself. And on the other hand, I can get you out so you can truly see my world."

"I guess so..." said Scootaloo hesitantly. She looked out the window at the snowy landscape. "You still shouldn't be running away from your parents. I'm jealous that you even have them."

Dave looked over in surprise. "I'm not running away forever. Just until I get my head on straight. But wait...where are your parents?"

Scootaloo looked away bitterly. "What? I thought you knew all about me already? Don't you know I'm just an orphan?"

Dave made a quick adjustment with the steering wheel and looked back in surprise. "I don't know everything about you. Not many people who watch the show do. All we know is that you're one of the cutie mark crusaders and that you look up to Rainbow Dash. That's all."

Scootaloo turned in surprise. "Really?"

Dave nodded. "That's all pretty much anyone knows. You're kind of a mystery."

She looked away. "I might as well join the club. I don't remember much of anything about my parents."

Dave frowned. He reached down and grabbed a small, rectangular, black thing, and handed it over to Scootaloo. "Here, why don't you pick a song? It doesn't matter if you don't know anything, pick something that sounds interesting. I like having music on in the background while I drive."

Scootaloo picked up the device and looked at it, her bitterness temporarily forgotten. "What is it? What do I do?"

Dave looked up to make sure the road ahead was clear, then looked back down. "This is a smart phone. I'll tell you more about it another time. Slide your hoof up and down the screen to look through the songs. If you see one that sounds interesting, tap on it once." Dave looked up once again, then back down. "There's some interesting stuff on there I guess. Give it a try."

Scootaloo looked down, and saw there was a list of things. Some sounded kind of boring, some seemed just plain weird. At one point, she accidentally made a selection. "Um, I think I accidentally pressed..." the rest of her answer was cut off as she jumped out of her seat at the noise that came out next to her. "D-d-dave...what..." Once again, the rest of what she had to say was lost as incomprehensible words began bellowing out of the speakers. Scootaloo had never heard anything like this. It reminded her vaguely of the time she and the other crusaders tried to write a rock opera, in how random it was. The intensity of the music was frightening. "HOW CAN YOU LISTEN TO SOMETHING LIKE THIS?" she yelled over the music.

Dave quickly grabbed away the small device, looked over it fast, and tapped it once. "This should be better." he said simply.

The intense sounds immediately stopped, and Scootaloo heard a faint noise in the background. It was kind of creepy but not so much that she was weirded out. "What the heck was that?!?" she asked. Dave started to laugh. "That's not funny!" said Scootaloo angrily. "That was really scary!"

Dave continued to laugh. "I'm not laughing at that, I'm laughing at the bad luck. Of all the songs you looked through, you would pick the one band that is the hardest to understand. Just my luck, you probably think I'm a terrifying monster now don't you?"

Scootaloo replied "You mean, I didn't before?" and stuck her tongue out at him.

Dave glanced down in surprise. "Oh, is that a fact?" and proceeded to stick his tongue out at the filly.

The two began to laugh. It was one of the first moments in some time they could relax and just enjoy the moment. Scootaloo had to admit, it felt pretty good.

**********

"So, where are we going?" asked Scootaloo.

I thought about it for a moment, then came up with the perfect answer. "Why don't you tell me? You can choose where we go."

Scootaloo gave me a confused look. "But I don't know where anything is. I mean, I guess I could go for a milkshake from sugar cube corner, but I don't think we can get there from here."

"That's true," I said. "But don't worry about that. I'll point out a place where we can choose the direction, and you can tell me which way you want to go."

"Well, I guess I can do that." she replied.

"And I'll make sure to find us some milkshakes along the way," I added with a grin.

Scootaloo grinned. "YESSS!" she exclaimed, adding a hoof pump for emphasis.

I couldn't help but grin as well. "You really can't go wrong with a chocolate milkshake, they're good no matter where you are."

Scootaloo nodded enthusiastically. "If only we could go to Sugar Cube Corner! Pinkie Pie makes the best milkshakes!"

"That's true," I said "but if I tried one I might be tempted to stay in Ponyville forever!"

Scootaloo paused. "I don't know, that might not be so bad."

I was a little surprised at that. "What do you mean?"

Scootaloo thought for a moment. "Well, for starters, you're much taller than me and Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, so you could help us do stuff that only full grown ponies could do. There's that."

"True..." I said slowly.

"And you said you wanted to get away from home, so maybe you might like Ponyville so much you could decide to stay!"

"Well I don't know..."

"And since you're older, you probably know lots of stuff about the world and life and stuff, and you know about cutie marks so maybe you could help me and the girls get our cutie marks!" Scootaloo finished with a gleeful expression.

"Whoa now, let's not get ahead of ourselves." I said. "I don't know if I can help you get your cutie mark any more than Twilight or Cheerilee or anyone else can."

"How come?" said Scootaloo. "You said you know about us right? So you must know what cutie marks are! And since you're old enough you probably have one yourself, right?"

"Well unfortunately for us it doesn't work that way," I said. "We don't get cutie marks."

"How would you know what your special talent is then?" asked Scootaloo.

I thought about that for a moment. "Well we don't always. People often discover new talents for themselves, or realize their old passions and talents aren't as easy for them. For me, guitar wasn't my first love. When I was your age, I wanted to be a baseball player."

"What's baseball?" she asked.

"That's not really important," I said, waving my hand dismissively. "What's important is that it never really worked out. After that, I changed my mind a number of times. I'm older than you and I'm still not sure. Why the rush to try and find your special talent now?"

Scootaloo thought about it. "Well, if we had our cutie marks, they would stop Diamond Tiara from picking on us. And that's why we have the cutie mark crusaders at all, so we can find our special talents."

"I guess I can understand that," I said. "But getting your cutie marks won't change them. They'll still be the same ponies they were before."

Scootaloo paused. "So what should we do?"

"Believe me, I've been there." I said. "People probably tell you guys to ignore them, right?" She nodded. "Yeah, I figured. I was always told the same thing, no matter what they were saying. It didn't matter how much I wanted to hit them or kick them or whatever. I was always told to leave them alone."

"So what did you do?" she asked.

I shrugged. "I retaliated physically once. I won't bore you with the details, but it got me into a lot of trouble to say the least."

Scootaloo looked away. "Well I definitely don't want to get in trouble. So what should I do?"

"It really depends on the situation honestly. With Diamond Tiara, I just wouldn't bother responding. Is it really worth the trouble to respond? The last time it happened, you got out of control, and...well, you ended up here, for better or for worse." I replied gently.

"I guess not." she said softly. She looked around. "So, is it almost time for Hearth's Warming Eve? It's cold and snowy, so it must be, right? Or is it like that all the time?"

I shook my head. "It's just that time of year. Most people call it Christmas, not Hearth's Warming Eve though."

"Christmas?"

"Yeah. It's pretty similar to Hearth's Warming Eve though. We give each other gifts, decorate trees, make gingerbread houses, and enjoy each others company in the warmth of our homes." I said.

Scootaloo looked away.

"I guess you haven't had too many good ones." I said softly. It was more a statement than a question.

She nodded and looked out on at the snowy landscape.

**********

The music that was playing seemed to fit the mood well right now. Scootaloo started to feel lonely again. She thought back to a recent Hearth's Warming Eve. She had been in Canterlot...

Scootaloo walked along the streets of the big city, alone. Rainbow Dash and her friends had finished with a dramatic retelling of the first Hearth's Warming Eve a little while ago, and they were all out celebrating a job well done, as well as each others company. Knowing Pinkie Pie, this would mean they'd be gone a while. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom had fallen asleep in their rooms not long after the older girls had left.

But Scootaloo could not sleep.

She left a note on her pillow. Explaining where she was and what she was doing.

Nobody paid the small filly any attention. But that was okay with her. She was used to it this time of year. Jumping between friend's houses. She knew she was a bother. A nuisance. An outsider.

So she went for a walk. The moon was unusually bright that night. Maybe she could find a quiet place to go where she could be alone and think. But she did not anticipate just how cold it would be on that cold winter night. She shivered as she stepped outside, wrapped her scarf around her neck once more, and began to walk around.

Canterlot was a beautiful city, and winter could really bring out the best in it. There were decorations everywhere. Multi-colored lights lit up the streets, shop windows had all kinds of toys and ornaments on display, and everyone seemed to be in a better mood.

Except for her.

A carriage filled with rich ponies rolled by, so focused on who they would impress at their next holiday party that they were hardly bothered by the puddle the carriage rolled over, kicking up cold, dirty street water that barely missed the small pegasus.

Couples trotted by without a second glance, so lost in each other's embrace that they paid no attention to the child who walked sadly on by.

Groups of friends laughed and danced by, so entranced by the beauty of the season that they didn't see the purple-haired filly shivering from the cold.

Scootaloo continued to walk through Canterlot. She didn't have a destination in mind. "I'm going somewhere, but not here." she said repeatedly to herself.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a set of bright blue eyes. She turned, but didn't see anything. Only a laughing couple, a tall pegasus wrapped in a large coat, and an elderly couple boarding a carriage.

She shivered again.

This continued for some time. Scootaloo went into a shop to buy a snack, but left after realizing she had forgotten her bits back at the hotel.

After a while, she realized she was getting incredibly cold. She decided to head back to the hotel. But then she looked around, and let out a cry.

She had gotten lost.

She tried to find the store she had just looked in, but by the time she had found it again, it was closed for the evening. Scootaloo sat on the doorstep of the shop and began to cry. "I guess I deserved this. I'm worthless. I'm just a burden." she sobbed.

Time passed. A cold breeze whipped through the streets, causing her to shiver. Her breath was coming out ragged. Scootaloo tried to get comfortable, but she couldn't escape the cold breeze that tore through her like a knife.

As she turned, she saw a glimmer in the sky. She looked up, but there was nothing there. She shivered again as a fierce breeze passed through again. She looked around again, and could have sworn she saw the glimmer again. It almost looked as if it landed down the road. Scootaloo felt herself get dizzy from the cold, but again, she could have sworn she saw the source come closer. Just as she began to hold herself up and really get a close look...

"SCOOTALOO!" called out a voice.

Scootaloo turned towards the source. Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Applejack were charging towards her rapidly.

"We've been worried sick about you, kid! What were you thinking?" exclaimed Rainbow Dash.

"Calm down now, Rainbow." said Applejack. "We found her, that's what counts."

"Are you alright, Scootaloo?" asked Twilight.

Scootaloo looked up at the three ponies, and tears began to well up in her eyes."I...I...I'm so..." she started, but she was shivering so hard she couldn't finish the apology, and she leapt into Rainbow Dash's outstretched arms. "I'm so sorry" she sobbed.

"It's okay, Scoots. Let's get you back to the hotel and get you wrapped up." said Dash.

Rainbow held Scoot in her arms as she followed Applejack and Twilight back to the hotel. As they headed back, Scootaloo looked over her shoulder. As sleep began to take hold, she strained to see down the road. She couldn't be sure, but she thought she saw the faintest hint of that same pegasus pony in the thick coat looking back at her. The pegasus looked away, and flew off into the night.

With that, Scootaloo slumped over, and fell asleep.

"Scootaloo?" she heard Rainbow Dash ask. But she already asleep.