The Sleepless Horse

Epilogue:

After Rainbow Dash awoke, she noticed that Scootaloo was already up and getting ready for school, which Dash realized she was going to be late for if she didn’t get her flank out of bed and get her safely back on the ground.

While she was in the nightmare, she had realized something about herself when the Sleepless Horse had threatened to harm Scootaloo-she would do anything for her-and she would never, ever let anyone or anything hurt her.

She had been busy that day, filling out forms and paperwork, which was far more tedious than cloud pushing and other weather management jobs in her opinion, and dropped by the orphanage before the part of the day came when school let out.

Dash waited outside for Scootaloo, before seeing her as one of the last ones out the door along with Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, the three were talking about possibly getting their cutie marks in fortune telling, before Scootaloo spotted her.

“Hey, Rainbow Dash!” she approached her friend, mentor, and big sister figure excitedly. “What’s up?”

“Well, just out of curiosity how would you feel if you could live with me?” she asked, trying to hide her grin.

“Live with you? Like, not just spending the night-but stay with you-like a family?” she asked, excitedly.

“Yeah, at least that’s what all those papers I had to sign said…” she added casually.

“Y-you mean…I get to-with you?” she asked, happily as her eyes began to tear up.

“Yep.”

“Rainbow Dash, I…” she jumped up, wrapping her forelegs around her, bringing her into a crushing hug. “Thank you! Thank you so much! I’ve always dreamed of this!”

She said all of this, forgetting that Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were still behind her, seeing and hearing everything that was going on, now that she’d dropped her cool façade.

“Good, ‘cause you’re gonna eat nothing but vegetables, do all of the house work and wait on me day and night.” She replied, sternly.

Scootaloo released her and backed up, “Huh?”

“Just messin’ with ya, squirt!” she grinned, before ruffling the young filly’s mane.

And all four of them shared a laugh.

Princess Luna talked with the Sleepless Horse for a bit, after a few hours he began to warm up to her again and agreed to help protect the ponies who dreamed to relieve some stress and make her job less difficult, she also healed his wounds, making his appearance less grizzly and allowed him to finally sleep after thousands of years of deprivation.

He even brought the notion of rekindling the romance they had, but she said she thought it was too soon, secretly worrying that he might snap again if things didn’t go his way and resolved to watch him for a while just to make sure he was really trustworthy and then she would consider it.

While appearing slightly miffed, he agreed that was fair, as Luna also suggested him at the very least trying to apologize to Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash sometime in the near future for any grief he’d caused them along with anyone else he may have harassed, while he was doubtful they would accept-he promised that he would try.

As she left the Dream World, Luna had decided to report to her sister herself, on the events that had transpired recently, being far too numerous relay in a single letter-besides, she felt that she could use Celestia’s council on the way she had been handling everything.