Beyond Infinity

"I'm having fun right now."

This thought kept running through my head as Scootaloo and I dashed through the woods. The woods were friendly in appearance, and I had a pretty decent sense of direction from my days as a Boy Scout, so I wasn't worried about getting lost. We just...played.

"Tag! Haha you're it now, Dave!" shouted Scootaloo, who had managed to sneak up on me while I was lost in thought.

"Huh? What? Hey wait a minute!" I yelled at the giggling orange filly.

We continued playing in this fashion for a while. It was probably only twenty minutes or so, but it felt like hours. It was the type of fun where time actually slows down instead of speeds up. I hadn't felt like this in such a long time.

************

"I haven't felt like this in such a long time." thought Scootaloo. Sure, playing with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle was fun. They were her best friends after all. But this...this was more like playing with Rainbow Dash. It felt strange for Scootaloo to even consider that. She idolized Rainbow Dash. She looked to Rainbow Dash like a big sister, and Scootaloo had gotten a sense that sometimes, even if Dash didn't pay her as much attention as she would like, Dash thought of her as a younger sister. But that was something that had taken months and months to develop. This had happened almost instantaneously. She had only known Dave for about a day...and yet she already felt a bond towards him. "I wonder what he's thinking..."

************

"I wonder what she's thinking..." I thought to myself. I wasn't sure what to make of this whole thing, and I'm significantly older than she is. I couldn't even begin to imagine where her head was with all of this. "I suppose if I just let things happen, I'll find out where she's at." So the game continued. I had been lost in thought for what seemed like a long enough time, so I started to look around.

But, Scootaloo was no where to be seen. Huh?

"Scootaloo!" I called. "Scootaloo!"

There was no response. My guess was that we had just started playing hide and seek and that she hadn't told me, and I couldn't help but grin. I felt like I was a kid again. You've all been there. That one girl/boy that you just chased around the playground, and then when you caught them, they chased you back. We've all been there. Except now, I was all grown up. Whereas the former scenario was more close friend/kid crush, this was more father/daughter. Wait, did I really say that? What was I saying? I barely knew the filly! She had been here barely a day! Sure, I kept up with the show. Sure, I knew a decent amount about her from that. But she hardly knew me, and we've hardly gotten to know each other. It wasn't like we recounted our whole life stories last night; just recent events. How did this all come together so fast?

In any case, I started to look for her. There was one thing I knew, and that was that I loved winning. I had always been competitive, and at the end of the day, this will just have been another game. Games, I understand. Games are simple: you can win, or you can lose. There isn't much of a middle ground there. And even if there wasn't a score to keep, I would find a way to win. In this case, I had to find Scootaloo. Piece of cake. It's not like there are dozens of small orange horses running around; she'll stick out. So I began the search. I searched behind trees, in bushes, and on some small branches. She might have managed to fly out of excitement, so I didn't put it past her to make it to some of the lower hanging branches.

But, there was still no sign of her. What was going on?

A thought then occurred to me. Scootaloo had appeared to me out of the blue. Maybe somepony had found a way to bring her back to Equestria. That would explain why she suddenly vanished. As far as I knew, there aren't any bears or anything in these woods, and even if that was the cause, I would have heard her scream. I wasn't sure what to do, but for some reason, the thought that Celestia or somepony had taken Scootaloo back home seemed unsettling. We had only just begun to get to know each other. I can't speak for her, but I felt we had something going. I didn't think it was a coincidence that she came to be here during such a tough time in both of our lives. Maybe I was reading too far into it. Maybe I had actually finally lost it. Maybe all this stress of work and this speeding ticket and my dog being gone had just finally forced me into insanity, and I had just imagined Scootaloo here the whole time. That would make sense. She was a cartoon character after all. It didn't make any sense that she would just appear here, much less my favorite character in the show. There was no logical reason. It didn't make sense. But at the same time, I wanted it to make sense. I wanted to feel like I was spending time, however short that time might be, with Scoot. But now it was looking like that time was already over.

"Well that's just fucking terrific." I said under my breath. "You hear that Celestia? I said that's just FUCKING TERRIFIC."

As if on cue, it began to rain. Not hard mind you, but it was November and the cold made it much more unpleasant. "Of course," I thought to myself. "On a day that started out perfectly sunny, I get hit with a rainstorm. Just my fucking luck." I looked around helplessly. I didn't think after the day I had had yesterday that I could ever feel more alone, but I did. I had lost my dog. I had lost my job. I really didn't have any sense of direction. For a moment, I thought Scootaloo would at least help me escape from that. Looks like that moment was over. I sighed to myself. I guess it was back to reality for me. I looked around the forest one more time. No sign of the small orange filly anywhere. I turned towards home, and slowly began to trudge back. I made it as slow as possible. I figured the longer I could put off facing real life, the better. I had reached a new emotional low. I cried when I buried my dog. I cried after the shitty day the other day. But here, I was now faced with returning to that after a very short vacation, AND having to face knowing that someone I had been wanting to meet and hang out with, however foolish that might seem, having to face not being able to say good-bye. I didn't even have the energy to cry here. I just felt horribly empty.

I ducked under a tree and checked my phone. Scoot and I had been out in the woods for a little over two hours, so I was way off in my estimation of time. I guess time does fly when you're having fun.

***********

"Well this stinks." thought Scootaloo to herself. She had heard Dave's yelling and desperately tried calling out for help, but he hadn't heard.

During their game of tag/hide and seek, Scootaloo had the fun idea to hide behind some trees, and to keep switching trees as Dave looked around. It was a totally unfair move, but she wanted to surprise him. What she hadn't counted on was the large root on the ground that caught her hoof. Her body hit the ground hard, knocking out her breath. Gasping for air, she had rolled over, trying to recover, and in the process she had rolled slightly downhill, landing in some brush. She wasn't completely obscured, but for Dave to see he would have to come partly down the slope.

And to make matters worse, it had started to rain.

"Well, I guess this is just my fault anyway." said Scootaloo softly. "I shouldn't have let Diamond Tiara push me around. I shouldn't have forced Twilight into doing that spell. Dave is right to leave me here, why should he take care of me?" Scootaloo's eyes began to water, her tears merging with the rain. Once again, she was all alone. She didn't even have Sweetie Belle or Apple Bloom, or even Ms. Cheerilee to talk to. She sneezed, and then shivered. It was cold. Whereas earlier in the day, it had been fairly warm and quite comfortable, with the sudden rainstorm the temperature seemed to drop several degrees.

Scootaloo realized she was breathing way too fast, so she tried to calm herself down. "I need to think of something." she said to herself. She looked at each of her hoofs, and realized that, although at first glance her front right hoof appeared stuck, it was actually not buried that deeply under the branches. She slowly but surely worked it free, then went to work on her left hoof.

"AHHHH!" she screamed out in pain, although it came out a little choked off due to the intensity of the pain. As she had turned to reach for her left hoof, it became apparent that her wings were caught in some thorny bushel. The more she struggled, the more the thorns bound her and the more pain she was in. Of course, this didn't stop her from trying. "I can't just sit here, I need to get out." she said over and over.

It soon became apparent that it was a fruitless struggle. Tears began welling up in the young fillies' eyes. "Why am I so weak?" she cried to herself. "CELESTIA! DAVE! APPLE BLOOM! RAINBOW DASH! MS. CHEERILEE! SOMEONE HELP ME, PLEASE!" she screamed to the heavens. There was no reply. "Why am I so weak?" she sobbed again. "My wings are useless, no one wants me, no one needs me, I'm just so alone." Years of bottled up emotions began to pour out of her small,  purple eyes. For a long time, she had kept her real feelings hidden. There were times when they came out; like when Diamond Tiara had insulted her after school. Or when Rainbow Dash was too busy for her the other week. And now Dave, whether intentionally or not, had abandoned her in this forest, in this strange new world. And there was nothing she could do to stop the tears.

Scootaloo stayed there for some time. She had gotten exhausted from the struggle of trying to escape, and the young filly was tired. "I can't sleep...have to...go find Dave...". Desperately, she tried once more to free herself, and to her amazement, she broke free of the thorns! She could feel the thorns tearing at her feathers, but she couldn't help but smile. She was free. She could feel the sweat (or was it blood?) dripping from her small wings, but she was free. "And now...time to find...someone..."

The poor filly could take no more, and she collapsed softly onto the forest's soft ground. As she drifted off into sleep, she had the presence of mind to crawl under a tree so as to stay somewhat dry. This last bit of effort took out all of her strength, so she lay there, in a state of mind that wasn't quite sleeping but certainly not awake.

What happened next, Scootaloo could not adequately describe. She had visions of a pony with piercing blue eyes and large wings. She had visions from high above the ground, among the clouds. From her point of view, the rainstorm was awe-inspiring. She had visions of Luna speaking to her and the strange pony, though she could not make out what was being said.

After a short time, Luna nodded, and flew away. The pegasus then walked over to Scootaloo, and lowered its head. Scootaloo could only stare. Just as she was beginning to come to a conclusion, the vision faded, and she could remember no more.