Scootaloo and the Slendermane

by TorontoFCBrony

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, Crossover, Dark
Length: 7767

Scootaloo is on a camping trip with her friends, but will Rainbow Dash's stories go too far? Or will her stories become reality?

Scootaloo is on a camping trip with Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle one year after their trip in the episode Sleepless in Ponyville. After hearing Rainbow Dash tell the story of the Slendermane, Scootaloo continues to have nightmares of this paranormal creature. But are these really nightmares? Or are they memories that the young orphan filly can't fully remember?

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-02-11 15:51:21 UTC

Scootaloo and the Slendermane

"This is going to be the best weekend ever!" shouted Scootaloo as she travelled on the path towards the campsite.  Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity were taking Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom for their second annual camping trip.  "I get to spend a whole weekend with my best friends and Rainbow Dash," she continued.

Sweetie Belle, who was once again carrying all of Rarity's travel supplies, said while panting, "I wonder... pant... what kind of story Rain... pant... Rainbow Dash will tell us at the campfire today?"

"Hopefully one that is REALLY scary," Apple Bloom shouted.  The three fillies still did not have their cutie marks,even after trying many different things.

"Maybe I'll get my cutie mark for being a wilderness explorer," Scootaloo said with hope.

The ponies arrived at their campsite, which was the same one that they visited a year ago on this weekend.  "Hey squirt, go get some firewood," Rainbow Dash instructed Scootaloo.

"Yes ma'am," the young orange pegasus replied while saluting.

Rarity and Applejack set up two logs as benches, Scootaloo was out gathering firewood, and Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were setting up the tents.   "Darling, I hope you won't scare the fillies too badly with your story tonight," Rarity pleaded with Rainbow.

Rainbow Dash responded, "Oh relax, Rarity.  The fillies are smart enough to know it's only a story!"

"Here you go Rainbow Dash," Scootaloo said eagerly while placing a grand total of six sticks in the spot where they were going to have a campfire.  It was an improvement from the amount she had gathered the year before, as her mouth was a little bigger.

"Meh, it'll do," responded Rainbow while giving Scootaloo a pat on the back.  All of the ponies sat on the logs around the campfire while Applejack lit the fire with sticks and a rope.

"And now it's time for the story!" said Rainbow while flying over the fire.  "Those with weak stomachs may want to leave the campsite!"  Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom looked at Rainbow Dash with wide, eager eyes.

Rainbow continued, "This is the story of the Slendermane.  Once there was a little filly, about your age actually.  She was at a campsite just like this one.  The moon was full and the sky had a few clouds in it.  The wind was howling.  She couldn't sleep because of the wind hitting the branches and making noise.  She decided to go outside to see the area, and the only thing she brought with her was a flashlight."

"Why only a flashlight?" Scootaloo interrupted.

"Just listen to the story," Rainbow Dash answered while still flying in the air.  "Am I allowed to continue?" she asked.  The three young fillies nodded their heads.

She continued, "After a few steps she found herself lost in the forest.  She had no idea where she was, how to get back to the campsite, or even how far she wandered off.  Shaking and scared, she started to run while looking for her previous steps.  But something caught her eye and made her stop.  It was a paper that was nailed to a very large tree.  She went up and grabbed it, not knowing what trap she was falling into.  All the paper said was 'Help me'.  This frightened the little filly and she jumped back.  She kept the paper with her as she kept trying to find her way back to the campsite.  However, she didn't know where to go!  The sky was getting darker and darker.  Looking behind her, she suddenly hit her head on something."

"What was it?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Was it a tree?" Scootaloo asked.

Rarity reminded the fillies, "You three ask so many questions.  You need to just listen to Rainbow and she will answer all the questions in her story.  Go ahead, darling."

Rainbow went on, "It was a gas truck.  What it was doing in the forest was beyond her comprehension.  But it had another paper on it.  This time it read 'Don't look or it takes you!'  What that meant she didn't know.  Who 'it' was was a mystery.  But she needed to keep going in order to find her way back to her loved ones.  The sky was now darker and her mind was playing games with her.  She could hear the light sound of a drum playing only one beat every few seconds.  She could see something in the distance.  Upon getting closer, she saw that it appeared to be a shed, and it had another paper on it.  She picked up the paper, which was now her third. 'Always watches... NO EYES,' is what it said.  As she turned around, she saw it!"

"What... What was it?" asked Apple Bloom, who was now trembling.

Rainbow Dash disappeared into the sky.  As the three Cutie Mark Crusaders were looking at the sky for Rainbow Dash, she appeared behind them and shouted, "The Slendermane!"  The three fillies all let out a scream and then a girlish chuckle.

Rainbow continued, "The Slendermane was just looking at her, or it appeared like it was.  The little filly could not tell because it did not have any eyes.  It only had a white face and was wearing a suit.  It was just standing there, menacingly. The little filly started to run.  She found herself up against a wall with yet another paper on it.  Upon grabbing it she read, 'Leave Me Alone!'  'Leave you alone?!  You're the one following me!' she yelled as she continued to run with her four papers and flashlight.  The beat of the drum was now accompanied with a long sound that was new to her.  It was long and creepy."

Looking over at the three fillies, Rainbow could see that they were all hugging and scared while listening to the story.  "Do you really want me to continue?" she asked them.

"Uh-huh," they all responded while nodding their heads up and down.

Rainbow kept telling her story, "She soon found herself around a group of large boulders with yet another paper on it that had a drawing of the Slendermane on it with the words 'NO NO NO NO NO NO' along the edges of the paper.  She kept running while looking back.  The Slendermane was hiding behind the trees.  As she stared at the Slendermane she could feel herself getting dizzy and her vision starting to get fuzzy.  She ran towards a large, red pillar with a sixth paper on it that was just a drawing of the Slendermane in the trees.  She turned around to find herself staring the Slendermane right in the face!  A loud noise that sounded like a bell was ringing.  She turned around and bolted towards an area without many trees.  She found herself surrounded by gas tanks with a seventh paper on it.  Picking it up, she read the only word on it, along with another drawing.  'Follows.'  'Yeah, I already know that,' she said as she saw the Slendermane just a few steps away from her.  She bolted into the nearby bathroom.  There were a few hallways in it, and one of the rooms had an eighth paper.  Picking it up, she read it out loud, but in a quiet voice of realization, 'Can't Run.'  Just then everything changed.  Her flashlight went dark!  She screamed and ran for the exit!  But it was too late.  The Slendermane was waiting for her at the door.  She slid on the tile floor right into the grasp of the Slendermane, who grabbed her with its many tentacles that came out of its back.  She let out a final scream to see if anypony else could hear her... But it was too late.  Her cries were never heard."

Rainbow Dash looked over to the three young fillies to see them hugging and trembling together.  She tried to comfort them by reassuring, "Hey, girls... It's... It's just a story!"

"Yeah," said Applejack with her southern accent.  "Besides, how could a pony with no face know where it's going?  It just don't add up."

"Come on you sweet little fillies, it's time for bed," Rarity said.

"Yeah, Ah'm tired," Apple Bloom said while yawning quite loudly.  Sweetie Belle and Rarity went into their deluxe two-story 'tent', that was more like a castle, the Apple sisters went into their modest tent, and Scootaloo just sat there on the log, shaking.

"Aw come on, squirt. It's just a story!"  Rainbow said while putting a wing around her little orange pegasus friend.  "If the Slendermane was real and always killed its victims, nopony would be able to tell the story to anypony!  It's only a story, and that is all it ever will be.  Besides, we went over this last year."

Scootaloo looked up at Rainbow while still within her kind grasp and said, "I hope you're right, Rainbow Dash.  Your stories really scare me!"

"It's ok Scoots," Rainbow Dash said while grasping Scootaloo even harder to reassure her.  "Even if they were real, I am more tough than any stupid Slendermane.  How smart can a pony be without a face?!"

"I guess you're right," Scootaloo said.  "Can we go to bed now?"

"Of course we can," Rainbow replied while messing up Scootaloo's mane with her hoof.

Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo went into their tent.  The young filly was still scared from the story, so she slept up against Rainbow.  Rainbow kept her arm around Scootaloo's head for comfort as Scootaloo laid down against Rainbow's chest.  Even though she still felt a little scared, Scootaloo had a calm come over her as she leaned against her honourary older sister.  She felt so content being able to sleep in the grasp of Rainbow Dash.  She felt a love that she hadn't felt since her parents used to hold her as a baby when they were still alive.  "I love you, big sister," she said as she fell asleep with a smile.

As Scootaloo woke up, she realized that she was no longer in the arms of her hero.  "Rainbow? Where are you?" she yelled out.  There was no response.  It was still night, in fact the night was very dark.  Scootaloo grabbed a flashlight from inside the tent and went out to investigate.  Upon coming out of the tent she saw Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom.  Both were just coming out of their tents with flashlights in their hooves as well.

"I can't find Rarity," Sweetie Belle said nervously.

"Ah can't find mah sister neither," Apple Bloom added.

"We have to go find them!  They may need our help," Scootaloo said while leading the three of them into the forest.  Scootaloo was willing to put her fears behind her in order to save her hero.  They continued walking.  They stumbled upon an area with many large wooden poles.  One of them had a paper on it.

Sweetie Belle picked it up and read out loud, "'Don't look or it takes you.'  Oh no!  It's just like in the story!"

"It can't be from the Slendermane," responded Scootaloo boldly.  "It doesn't exist!  It's probably just Applejack or Rarity playing a prank on us or something."

"Uh, Scootaloo?  Do you notice something wrong?" asked Sweetie Belle very nervously.

"What?" Scootaloo responded.

"Apple Bloom is gone!"  Sweetie Belle yelled out.  The two looked down to see Apple Bloom's flashlight on the ground.  Apple Bloom was indeed gone.  There was no sight of her at all, not even a scream.

"Ahhhhh!" yelled the two young, scared fillies.  Scootaloo grabbed the paper and Sweetie Belle grabbed the dropped flashlight as the two ran into the woods even further.  They found themselves now in the middle of all trees, nowhere near the camp site.  Scootaloo could see a paper on a large tree in the distance.

"Here, hold this," she said as she handed her flashlight to Sweetie Belle, who was now holding three flashlights: one in both front hooves and one by her teeth.  "Keep the light on the tree while I go pick up that paper," Scootaloo said.

"Mmm hmm," Sweetie Belle replied with her mouth full.

Scootaloo went over and picked up the next paper.  She read it out loud, "'Can't run.' Oh no!"  She turned around to see Sweetie Belle holding the flashlight.  The light flashed into Scootaloo's eyes.  "Hey! Point it down you big dummy," she yelled to Sweetie Belle.

However, when the light was pointed down she noticed that it wasn't Sweetie Belle holding the light.  Scootaloo now found herself face to face with the Slendermane!  She screamed at the top of her lungs while running as fast as she could without even thinking about what could have happened to Sweetie Belle.  She tried her best to fly, but she could only get a few feet above the ground and hover only for a few seconds.  "Stupid wings, when will I ever be able to fly?" she asked out loud.

Scootaloo was now running in the forest, dark and alone.  She could hear a fast paced drum going on in her head.

Panting, out of breath, and scared out of her mind, she stopped and looked through an empty space in the sky that was clear of trees.  The moon was full, and she could see the face of Princess Luna looking upon her in the moon.  Scootaloo stopped in place to look up at Luna's face.  It was just like last year.  Was this a dream?  Or was this Luna appearing to her in real life?

Luna looked down on her and said, "Do not fear, young filly.  Fear will make you weak.  To conquer fear, young Scootaloo, you must become fear.  You must feel it deep inside you.  Feel it cloud your senses.  Feel it's power to distort, to control, and know that this power can become yours.  Embrace your worst fear.  Look it straight in the eyes and fight it!  You did it before, and you can do it again."  Scootaloo remembered that Princess Luna had entered into her dreams before.  Luna also appeared in the moon to Scootaloo when she was awake.  This did not feel like a dream though.  This felt too real.

Scootaloo turned around to see the Slendermane staring directly at her.  Scootaloo gulped, and looked the Slendermane straight in the eyes, or at least where its eyes should have been.  "I'm not afraid of you!" she yelled out.  "You are trying to use fear to get me!  You can't do that! I AM FEAR!"  Suddenly a bright light flashed.  The Slendermane was gone.  In its place was Rainbow Dash.

"Oh Rainbow Dash! You're okay," Scootaloo said while running to give Rainbow Dash a hug.

Her hero pushed her back.  "Back off kid, I don't care about you.  You're not brave enough to be my little sister.  You're not even good enough to be called my friend."

Scootaloo, now with a tear running down her cheek, looked at Rainbow Dash in the eyes, "Rainbow... But... You... You are my sister... I love you!  How could you turn me away?"

Rainbow Dash turned around and said while walking into the darkness, "You are a nopony, Scootaloo.  You will never be loved by anypony."

Scootaloo, now completely alone in the forest, started to cry her eyes out.  She realized that the Slendermane was not her worst fear.  Her worst fear was being alone.  Alone, with nobody to care for her, with nopony to love her.  That was true fear.

"...Aloo... Ootaloo... SCOOTALOO!"

"Huh... What?" asked Scootaloo while waking up from her nightmare. "It... It was only a dream?"

"You were dreaming about the Slendermane, weren't ya kid?" asked Rainbow Dash, who was still holding Scootaloo tightly in her grasp in the middle of the night.

"I was dreaming of it, and it was horrible," said Scootaloo while looking down.  "

Kid, let me tell you something.  You need to stop letting stories scare you this bad.  You need to look fear in the eyes and say 'I'm not afraid of you!'  That is how you can conquer fear."

Scootaloo looked at her big sister straight in the eyes and said, "But it wasn't the Slendermane that I was truly afraid of... It was you."

"Me?!" asked Rainbow, who was shocked. "How could you be scared of me?  Were you scared of my awesomeness?"

Scootaloo, with watery eyes, replied, "I was dreaming that you came after I defeated the Slendermane.  You said that I am a nopony and I will never be loved by anypony.  You left me in the forest, alone and crying."

"Scootaloo... I," said Rainbow, who could hardly get out the words.  "I would never ever say that to you.  You are my little sister, and I love you.  I want you to be by my side for the rest of my life.  And you ARE a somepony!  You stared a creature without eyes right in the eyes.  How is that even possible?  You are the coolest little filly I have ever known, and you will always be special to me.  I will always be here for you even if others aren't."

Rainbow grabbed Scootaloo tight and the two shared a very strong hug.  "I love you, Rainbow Dash," said Scootaloo.

"I love you too,” replied her hero.

Sanatorium

Scootaloo had her eyes closed as she was lying down on the floor.  She could hear footsteps in the distance, but that was all she could hear.  The footsteps echoed multiple times, and then slowly got quieter, until they stopped altogether.  She decided to open her eyes.  She found herself in a poorly lit room inside of a large, one floor building.  “Hello?  Is anypony there?” she asked out.  “Where am I?”

There was no answer.  In fact, there was no sound coming at all from anywhere.   She looked around.  The place she was in was somewhere she had never seen before.  The walls were grey, the floor was grey, the ceiling was grey, and there was nopony in sight.  It just felt weird to her.  She turned around in a circle to see if there was any way out.  There were two closed sliding doors behind her, but there was no way to get them open.  She tried her best to open them.  She tried pushing them apart with her hooves, leaning back on the door with her back while kicking her legs out to push it, feeling along the brown doorframe to see if there was a way to open it.  Eventually she kicked the door.  “Oh sweet mother of Celestia, ouch,” Scootaloo yelled out while bouncing and holding the hoof she just hurt by kicking the metal doors.

“I guess there is no way of getting out her,” she figured out.  Scootaloo decided to walk down the dark hallways to see if she could find a way out.  She looked around, hoping to find a friendly face that she could talk to.  Sadly, there was nopony around, nopony to talk to, and definitely nopony to show her the way out.  The only thing that seemed to be following her was her own shadow, or so she thought…

She found herself led into a room that looked to be an old laundry room.  There were green washing machines and dryers on both sides of the room, with two large tables.  There were old boxes of detergent, but they were obviously not touched for quite a long time.  Scootaloo yelled out, “Where the hay am I?”  She looked around the room.  “100% more suds?” she read on one of the boxes of old detergent.  The box was felt very old.  The little orange pegasus put it back down on the table and tried to find a way out of this horrible, dark place.  There were only two ways to go: the way she came, and the doorframe leading to another hallway.  She went towards the other hallway, into the unknown.  But something stopped her; something eerie.  It was something that she had seen before, but where?  She looked over to it.  She gasped as soon as she recognized what it was.  It was a letter.  “No escape,” she read as she picked it up from off the wall beside one of the washing machines.  “Um, Rainbow Dash?  You in here?” she asked out, hoping to see the smiling face of her honorary sister.  But there was no reply, not even a sound.  The only sound that came was the echo of her voice, bouncing down the empty hallways and back into her little ears.

She went forward into the unknown.  Scootaloo did not know where she was, but she already knew that it was not a safe place to be.  A dark, large, empty building was no place to be for a young filly.  She continued to walk down the many, seemingly endless hallways.  The only sound she could hear was the sound of her footsteps.  The only thing she could feel was the beat of her heart and the shivers down her spine as she could see more and more rooms, many with only one dim light in the ceiling.

Scootaloo decided to choose one of the many rooms she was passing along the way.  There was room just to her right, so she decided to go in it.  ‘Hopefully this is the way out,’ she said in her mind.  She decided not to speak for the next little while, so as not to draw any attention to herself.  This room had two bunk beds on the left, and three brown dressers on the right.  But there was something else on the right upon further inspection.  It was another paper.  She picked it up and read it in her mind.  ‘Always watching.’  Scootaloo had been through this before, but it was a dream.  She could remember the time when she was on her trip with the others.  She allowed Rainbow Dash’s story of the Slendermane to get to her, and she dreamt of being followed by it in the dark forest.  This did not feel like a dream, though.  She tried everything to get herself out of the dream.  She jumped up and down, pinched herself, and clenched her teeth and eyes to put pressure on her mind, but nothing woke her up.

Scootaloo decided to continue, hoping to find a way out.  She had found two pages on the walls of this building.  She still did not know what this building was, but she knew that she was in danger if she didn’t continue her search to find an exit.

The little filly, scared and confused, walked down more of the quiet hallways.  She came into a large common room, where a few of the hallways met.  There were tables and vending machines, but no papers, and definitely no sign of an exit.  She looked quickly around the room by spinning in place, but continued down one of the other hallways.

Her nerves were really starting to get to her.  The fur on the back of her neck was starting to stand up.  She felt a chill down her spine.  Something was close, she could feel it.  She felt the urge to turn around, but she was afraid to, thinking that she would be face to face with a monster of some sort.  But the filly could remember the words of Princess Luna, word for word.  Scootaloo knew that she would have to become fear to conquer it.

“Ah-hah!” Scootaloo screamed out as she jumped and turned around, but nothing was there.  It was just the dark hallway, and the vending machines.  Nothing was even moved.  She scratched her head with her hoof and kept moving.  She looked everywhere for an exit, even on the ceiling.  But if there was an exit on the ceiling, her young wings were not strong enough to reach it.  She could hover a little bit, but that was it.

After a few more minutes of walking and briefly looking into rooms, she found another paper in what appeared to be a small bedroom.  “What kind of a place is this?” she asked out loud.  She picked up the paper, which said, ‘Took my filly, now coming for me.’  “What in Equestria?” she said as she looked at the paper.  But things were different this time.  After she picked up the third paper, a large bell could be heard throughout the dark hallways.  It dinged a similar sound every time, and it occurred every few seconds.  Scootaloo shivered at the awful, creepy sound it made.

The bell made Scootaloo grow more and more afraid.  But after a few minutes, she got used to it.  The sound did not change at all; it was just consistent.  She walked down a new hallway.  She heard a noise come from behind her.  Turning around, she discovered absolutely nothing.  There was nothing in the hallway, and the noise was could have even just been her mind playing with her.  She continued down the hallway, but this time walking backwards, so as to make sure nothing was following her.  ‘If only I had somepony with me, then we could guard each other,’ she thought to herself.  She continued to take steps backwards.  She bumped into something very hard, and the force jolted her forward a little bit.  She turned around to investigate what it was, only to be face to face with what appeared to be a fearsome lion.  She screamed out loud, but he scream quickly turned into a slight chuckle, as she realised that it was only a statue.  It was engraved, and it said ‘With our thoughts we create our world.’  “That’s pretty deep, thank you lion,” Scootaloo said while tapping the lion on its stone head.

Scootaloo continued down the dark hallways with the sound of the bell still going off.  She kept looking back behind her to see if anything was following her.  Every time she did that she got a chill down her spine, but nothing was ever there.

Going down one of the hallways, she saw a door in the corner.  The door was on the right, while the hallway continued down the left.  It just looked to her like a good place to go.  The room was not the exit, however.  It was a bathroom, and it had a fourth paper on the wall beside the hoof dryer.  She went over to collect it, reading quietly, “It came from the forest.”  Scootaloo just stopped and stared at the paper.  She almost went into a state of shock.  ‘It came from the forest?’ her mind asked.  She knew exactly what ‘it’ was.  But something distracted her.  It was a horrible smell coming from one of the bathroom stalls to her left.  She decided to put fear in the back of her mind, and she began to open the doors of the stalls.  Door one, empty.  Door two, empty.  The rest of the doors were empty too.  Finally, the last bathroom door.  The smell was disgusting and almost unbearable.  She opened the door to see one of the most disturbing sights she had ever seen.

The Slendermane was sitting down on the toilet and reading the Equestria Daily newspaper.  Scootaloo now knew what the smell was.  She had a mix of fear and nausea inside her.  She tried not to scream, she tried not the throw up, and she really tried not to make a sound.  But the Slendermane knew somepony had disturbed its alone time.  It lowered the newspaper to see the scared orange filly looking back at it.  Scootaloo was shaking and scared, and she took a few steps back.  The Slendermane reached forward.  Scootaloo screamed at the top of her lungs and ran out of the bathroom.  She didn’t even get to see that the Slendermane was just reaching to close the door so that it could finish its business.

Scootaloo continued to run at her fastest speed.  She could hear the toilet flush from behind her.  She turned her head and saw the Slendermane come to the doorframe of the washroom.  Scootaloo heard a deathly frightening low bell sound that occurred when she looked the Slendermane in the face, or lack of face, rather.  The worst part of all: it didn’t wash its hooves.  “Ewwww,” Scootaloo said at the thought of it.  She continued to run, looking for an exit.  She turned to her right, and came into a dead end room, with computers along the wall.  One paper was on the wall to her right, but that didn’t matter to her.  She turned around to see the Slendermane, almost trapping her in the room.  But Scootaloo had a little bit of space in the wide room to run passed it.  Scootaloo got quite a bit ahead.  She never saw the Slendermane move, but every time she turned back to look, it was in a new place.  It slowly but surely got closer to her.

Scootaloo finally found the doors that she woke up beside.  She tried desperately to get them to open.  With tears down her face due to her fear, she begged and begged as she pushed and pulled on the doors, “Please open, please open!”  But it was too late.  Scootaloo’s eyes began to get fuzzy, as if she turned on an old television in a snowstorm and the cable had been lost.  She turned around to see the Slendermane right in front of her.  Scootaloo looked up at the tall beast, and looked it right in the eyes…

Scootaloo opened her eyes to realise that she was in the alleyway in Ponyville where she decided to fall asleep for the night.  It was pouring rain, and as she looked up, the rain fell heavily on her face.  As an orphan pony, she had to walk the streets of Ponyville to find different places to spend the night.  On this night, as she wandered the wet streets, the alleyway behind Sugarcube Corner seemed like the only safe place she could find.  Even though Scootaloo yearned to be in a loving home, she still never found anypony to take her in.  She never asked anypony, but nopony offered either.  She was wet, sad, and alone, but at least she was alive.

The little filly walked down the wet streets of Ponyville, with the streetlights on the side of the road guiding her.  She looked down at the ground as she walked with her wet mane dripping.  She walked over the small stone bridge and over to Rainbow’s floating mansion.  There was no sign of anypony walking around, but that was normal for this time of night.  It was indeed quiet late, probably one or two in the morning.

Scootaloo could see the floating mansion above her.  As she looked up, the rain fell on her face.  She tried desperately to jump and fly up to the front door.  But her wings were just not strong enough to make the flight up there.  She could only make it a maximum of three or four metres in the air, before falling back to the ground.  Scootaloo looked down to the ground and sighed.

“Oh goodness, Scootaloo, what are doing out at this time of night?” came a voice from behind her.

Scootaloo turned to see that it was Fluttershy, who was carrying her bunny Angel in her hooves as she hovered above the ground.  Scootaloo sighed again and said, “I’m wandering around, looking for a place to spend the night.  I can’t fly, so I can’t go to knock on Rainbow’s door.  What are you doing out this late?”

“I was just coming back from one of the restaurants that are open late.  Angel wanted a midnight snack,” Fluttershy said.  Angel smiled proudly and nodded his head up and down.  “Do you want me to help you get up there?” the yellow mare asked the young, flightless filly.

“That would be great, Fluttershy, thanks so much,” Scootaloo said.  Fluttershy put Angel down for a quick second.  She pointed and Angel and told him not to go anywhere, to which he just glared back at her.  Fluttershy picked up Scootaloo and lifted her up to the front of Rainbow’s house.

The two of them knocked loudly on the cloud door, which somehow worked.  Rainbow came down and opened the door.  Her mane was messy and she was in a housecoat, obviously just coming out of the shower.  Staying up late must have been the reason why she took naps frequently during the afternoon.  “Scootaloo?  Fluttershy?  What’re you doing here this late?” she asked.  She looked down at the filly, who was wet and shivering due to being outside in the cold rain all night.

“C-c-c-can I p-p-p-p-please stay here tonight Rainbow?” Scootaloo asked while shivering .

“Of course you can!” Rainbow said while opening the door wide.  Scootaloo and thanked Fluttershy for bringing her all the way up there.  Fluttershy patted Scootaloo on the head, and then looked down to see Angel hopping away, getting into more mischief.  Fluttershy flew down and into the night to try to find her rude bunny.

Rainbow and Scootaloo went into the blue pegasus’ house.  It was well lit, well furnished, and huge, something that Scootaloo was not used to.  But then again, anything was better than just wandering the streets.  Rainbow brought over her special blanket to wrap the small filly in, who was sneezing and sniffling due to the cold.  Rainbow held and brought Scootaloo over to the soft cloud couch in her living room.

“Scoots, were you just out on your own?  Do you not have a place to stay?” Rainbow asked her.

“N-n-n-no, I have n-n-n-nowhere to stay, and I n-n-n-never have since my p-p-p-parents passed away,” Scootaloo said while still shivering in the warm blanket.

“Aw, Scoots,” Rainbow said while sitting down and putting her arm around the orphaned filly.  “You now have a permanent place to stay, right here in my home.  It’s the least I can do as your older sister.”  Scootaloo looked up the see Rainbow wink at her for reassurance.

Scootaloo rested her head on the mare.  She was able to fall asleep while wrapped in the blanket, and leaning on her hero.  She now had a place to stay, and she could now say she was part of a family that loved her.

Mansion

Scootaloo spent the whole night under the close watch of Rainbow Dash.  However, her sneezing and shivering continued.  She just seemed to get worse and worse as the night went on.  Rainbow did not even sleep for a second because she needed to make sure that the little filly was going to be okay.  It appeared to be just a bad cold and a high fever because of being out in the cold rain all night.

However, when Scootaloo woke up in the morning after a few hours of sleeping, she was very dizzy.  Rainbow was making breakfast in the kitchen, and Scootaloo stumbled over while trying to make it to the table.  When she sat down on the chair at the breakfast table, her head was spinning.  “Good morning, Scoots,” Rainbow said while putting a cheese bagel in front of the sick filly.

Scootaloo just looked at the food.  She did not feel well enough to eat it.  “Hey, are you alright?” Rainbow asked her.  Scootaloo just shook her head to show that she clearly wasn’t.  “I think we should take you to the hospital,” the mare suggested.

Rainbow grabbed the sick filly, wrapped her back in the blanket, and brought her to the hospital to get some urgent care.  She did not know what was wrong with the filly, but it was not good, to say the least.  It was not just a normal cold or flu, it had to be something worse to be affecting her this badly.

Scootaloo was able to get her very own room at the Ponyville Hospital, which was actually by chance the same room that Rainbow was in when she injured her wing.  “Ah, memories,” Rainbow said as Nurse Redheart, the female earth pony who worked at the hospital, brought Rainbow into the room while she held the sick filly, who was just staring off into space and groaning at her sickness.  Rainbow laid Scootaloo down on the bed, and Nurse Redheart asked Rainbow to leave and go to the waiting room while the doctor would come in and do some tests.

Rainbow Dash waited patiently in the waiting room.  There really was not anything else to do there.  She looked at all the other sick ponies waiting to get attention.  They all had different illnesses and problems.  A male pegasus to her right had injured his wing.  She knew exactly how that felt, having been through the same thing herself.  She decided to just nap in her seat until either the doctor or nurse would come to get her.

As Rainbow slept, the drool from her mouth dripped down her face.  That was when she was tapped by the same doctor who had cared for her when she was in the hospital.  “Hello Rainbow Dash,” he said.  “I hope the wing is doing just fine!”

“Oh yeah, it’s great.  Thanks, doc!  How is the little filly doing?” Rainbow replied and asked while popping her head up.

The doctor responded, “Well, not good, but not too bad either.  We still can’t figure out what kind of sickness she has.  We care going to have to keep her here overnight and continue to do tests.  Until then we are giving her medication that will hopefully help her flu-like symptoms.  We suggest you go home and come back first thing in the morning tomorrow.”

“Alright, doc, I’ll see you tomorrow.  Take care of my little sister, please,” Rainbow said with care as she left the hospital.  Scootaloo was given heavy medicine to help her get better.  She was able to sleep very deeply throughout the night.

“Huh?  Where am I?” Scootaloo asked out loud as she stood in front of a large house at night.  Something about this house seemed familiar to her.  It was large and quite old, but she had been here before.  It was raining hard outside, so she decided to go into the house, not knowing who was inside.  She knocked on the door with her hoof, but the door wasn’t locked.  She slowly leaned her head in the door.  “Hello?” she asked to see if anypony was home.

Because there was no response, she decided to go in.  To her it was better being inside a house than to be outside in the thunderstorm.  As she closed the door after entering the poorly lit house, a lightning bolt struck close by.  The sound of the thunder made her jump in place.  There was no sign of anypony in the house, but she knew that she had seen this house before.  Where this house was located was still unknown to her.  The young filly, full of energy, decided to do some investigative work to find out where she was.

In the main first room of the house she saw a large statue of a mare with her hoof in the air made of stone.  There were two stairwells leading to upstairs, but she decided to go straight to the main floor first.  The first room and small hallway on her left led to a room with two beds, a few dressers, and a glowing painting.  She decided to go up to the painting.  It was a painting that she clearly remembered from before.  It was that creepy painting that her father loved, for some reason unknown to her.  It had a picture of some kind of creature that looked like the grim reaper in front of a few trees.  She stared at it weirdly for a few seconds and then moved on.

Scootaloo continued to walk throughout the main floor of the house.  She could see all of the furniture, including old tables, couches, and for some reason, multiple pianos.  But that was when she realised where she was: her childhood home in the outskirts of Ponyville.  It was severely run down from the time that she lived there, but was still mostly left the same.  She could still not remember what her parents looked like, who they were, or even how they had passed away.  But she was starting to remember certain things of her childhood come back to her.  The more items she passed, the most memories she got back.  She must have come from a rich family to live in a house this big; a mansion, if you will.

The orange pegasus found a donut in the water fountain, a cookie on a bed in a spare bedroom, and a frying pan on another bed, which did not make much sense to her at all.  She also found a key on the table to go to the upper floor.  Going up the stairs to the second floor, she kept getting more and more of her childhood memories through the items she passed.  She could see old paintings, furniture, and other things as she continued to walk around.  Two items in particular brought memories back to her mind, and tears to her eyes.  She found her old bedroom and her old teddy bear that she used to fall asleep with.  Back then it was bigger than her, and now, well, it was still bigger than her, but not as big as she remembered.

Beside her bed on her night table she found a picture.  No picture would ever mean as much to her as that one did.  It was a picture of her as a really young foal in the arms of her parents.  The smile on her face told the whole story.  She remembered that she had such a happy foalhood.  She could also now picture in her mind how her parents looked.  Her parents were both pegasi.  Her father was a brilliant shade of yellow, and her mother was red, hence leading to the orange colour of Scootaloo.  Scootaloo picked up the picture and held it in her hooves.  A teardrop from her eyes fell onto the picture frame.  “Father… Mother… What happened to you?  Why did you leave me so soon?  Why would you leave me to fend for myself?” she asked out loud as she cried while looking towards the picture.

Her sadness had to be put on hold, as she heard what seemed to her like the front door opening and closing.  She quickly became rigid in her stance as she could hear footsteps coming up the stairs.  She looked around the corner to see what was coming towards her, but nothing was there.  She took a few steps back, and hit a very large pony.  The fill turned around, expecting to face her possible doom.  She looked up and met the eyes of a creature she saw in the forest: Princess Luna.

“Huh?  What are you doing here?” Scootaloo asked the Princess of the night.

“Young Scootaloo, I am here to tell you that this is a nightmare.  You are currently in the hospital recovering from an illness.  I do not know what happened to your parents, but I want you to know that you should continue in this dream, because it will also keep giving you memories of your parents.  Your brain is trying to help you remember what happened through these dreams.  I suggest that you keep the dream going and try to remember everything you see.  It will help you to get closure.  I must go now, because there are other fillies who need my help.  Be brave, Scootaloo.”  The princess left the dream by flying backwards and out of the open window behind her.

Scootaloo, now knowing it was a dream, decided to keep going with it to try to gain memories of her parents.  Perhaps she could figure out what happened to them.  She found a key on the couch that would lead to the basement of the house.  She carried that, along with the picture frame of her and her parents.  She went towards the main floor in order to go to the basement.  As she made her way down the stairs she saw the Slendermane at the front door.  She stood rigid in place, hardly being able to move a muscle.  “I… I am not afraid of you!  Get out of my house!” she yelled at the Slendermane.  The Slendermane just stood there, not really doing anything in particular.  Scootaloo began to fell fuzzy in her eyes and brain as she looked at the Slendermane.  “Ah forget it, you’re useless.  I have memories to capture,” she said as she turned around to go down the hallway and to the stairwell leading to the basement.

She didn’t feel the urge to run down the hallway.  She just walked, knowing that the Slendermane was behind her.  The little filly proved to be brave when determined to accomplish something.  She went down and unlocked the door to go into the basement.

The basement had many hallways as well, but not really any rooms.  It appears that her father never did finish the renovations on the house, because the walls were still unpainted drywall.  As she continued to look for memories of her parents, she saw an old bust of a face that her mother had crafted.  It was an original creation that her mother had made, called a ‘human.’

The bathroom surprisingly had a memory for Scootaloo.  She could see a box of bath soap.  She could remember when she was only one or two years old, when her mother used to put her in the bath with all of the bubbles and toys.  Scootaloo really loved bath time.  She had a memory come to her mind when she sat in the bath, and her mother reached in to pick her up.  Scootaloo struggled against her because she wanted to stay in the water, but her mother said, “You have to come dear, it’s bed time.  I’ll sing you a lullaby.”  It didn’t have any particular importance to her, but any memory of her parents was a good one.

Scootaloo continued throughout the basement.  She found an open room which had her father’s old grandfather clock.  He had moved it there while they did renovations on the house.  She turned around to go back, only to see the Slendermane had followed her there.  This time she had forgotten that she was being followed.  She jumped in place and let out a little scream, dropping the picture frame on the ground and cracking it.  She looked down at the picture quickly.  The frame was cracked, causing the picture of her parents to be blocked, and the memory of what they looked like removed from her mind.  “No no no no no, why?” she said as she looked at the broken memory on the ground.  Another tear fell from her eyes.  She turned to the Slendermane, who was still just standing there.  She took a breath and sniffled, but sternly said to the Slendermane, “You do not know how much I hate you right now.  Get the buck away from me!”  The Slendermane vanished, which was exactly what happened in the forest when Scootaloo stood up to it.  She remembered the words of Luna in the forest, “To conquer fear… you must become fear.”

Scootaloo proudly smiled at standing up to one of her fears once again, but she was still saddened that she broke the memory of what her parents looked like.  There seemed like no way to bring it back to her mind here.  She leaned forward on her knees to look at the broken picture frame.  “Why, why did it have to break?  Why can’t I remember what you look like anymore?”

She was then grabbed from behind and pulled up.  Not even knowing who was there, she screamed out, “Let me go, you monster!”

“Scootaloo, it’s me, Rainbow Dash.  You’re having a nightmare, wake up,” Rainbow, who was holding her in the dream, said.

“No!  I need to remember my parents…”

Scootaloo woke up in her hospital bed.  She slowly opened her eyes to see that Rainbow was visiting her.  “Are you okay, Scootaloo?  You were having a nightmare of the Slendermane from the sounds you were making,” the mare said to her.

The filly, who was feeling much better after having a good night’s sleep, said in response, “Yeah, I was.  But it actually was starting to help me remember my parents.  I found a picture frame of me and them, and I could remember what they looked like.  But when I saw the Slendermane I dropped it, breaking the memory of them.”

Rainbow stroked her hoof through the little filly’s mane.  “I am so sorry, Scoots.  Maybe I should take you to Twilight if you feel better tomorrow.  She’s an egghead, so she may be able to help you with your dreams.”

Scootaloo asked, “Actually, can we go see Princess Luna?  Luna has entered my dreams a few times.  She may be able to help me.”

“If you really want to do that, squirt, we can do that,” Rainbow said.  The blue pegasus gave her little sister a hug.  Scootaloo was still not healthy enough to go home on this day, but the doctor said that the next day would probably be safe enough for her to leave the hospital.  Until then, sleep and medicine would help her get better.