I will help you.
Scootaloo didn't held anything back. She yelled, cried, sobbed, called out and hit the couch under her with all four hooves. All of this under the warm protecting wing of the yellow mare.
“I...I mad at you.
I'm loving you.
I don't want to see you ever again.
I don't want to be alone.”
She babbled into Fluttershy's mane and sobbed again. The mare stayed silence and opened her wing hesitantly. She looked inquiring to the filly in her embrace and listened to her blabbering.
“Please come back.
Don't let me alone.
Get well soon.
I'm missing you so much.”
The filly raised her head finally, stroke away the last tears in her eyes, snivelled once and sighed relieved.
“Are you feeling better right now?”
The filly blushed, flinched away from Fluttershy's side, fondled gently over her forelegs and nodded finally.
“I think so.”
The yellow mare smiled and eyed up the little filly with a very interesting glare. Her wings trembled a little bit, but she calmed herself down more and more. Fluttershy's eyes were wandering over the ceiling and she seemed to consider what she could say. Scootaloo in the opposite knew exactly what she want to ask.
“What shall I do?
I can't send Mum such a letter.
I can't tell her, that I'm disappointed,
because she has become ill and couldn't come.”
The filly drooped her head quickly and stroke the couch with a hoof. She refrained a yawn and stretched herself. Fluttershy sighed and pondered along. Her eyes stopped shortly at Angel, who laid aside her other wing and cocked his head to eye up both pegasi.
“I mean, she isn't responsible for that, or is she?
I want to see her and tell her about my nightmares.”
Fluttershy focused the little bunny and still pondered about her answer. Not until Scootaloo stood up, she looked back at her. The filly yawned and wiped over the eyes with one hoof.
“I think you could do this, Scootaloo.
Write her a letter and tell her about your dreams.
She is able to help you, I'm sure of that.”
Scootaloo roamed around in the cottage, tried to disagree with the mare, closed her mouth without any audible sounds. She drew lines on the ground with her left hoof and chewed on her lips again.
“You know a letter could be much more helpful, as a talk.
It is often difficult to speak up and start to talk about your feelings.
I'm often stammering around and in a letter you can describe much better, what bothers you.”
Fluttershy looked to the pacing filly and tried to get her back to the table. Scootaloo paused her trotting and thought. She looked back to Fluttershy and smiled hesitantly. Slowly and unwilling to look up in her eyes, she returned to the table and sighed down on him. As the circled it, she spotted the plate with the cookies and she laid down on the couch in front of it.
“But how can I be sure, that she doesn't get sad or mad about me?”
She took a cookie with her mouth and nibbled it. As she swallowed the sweet mush, her stomach grumbled and she felt how hungry she actually was. She devoured all the cookies on the plate and drank a cup of tea, which Fluttershy gave her. The warmth inside her stomach laid down on her body like a blanket.
“Do you want to talk about it with somepony else?
You don't want to distress your Mum with your nightmares?
Who do you trust enough and who pony else did know you well enough to replace your Mum?”
Scootaloo sighed and opened her mouth, but a sudden yawn escaped her before she was able to answer and she blushed. She stretched herself gain and wiped over her eyes. Fluttershy smiled gently and looked around. She searched for the clock and stared at it with a surprised yelp. She stood up very fast and pushed Scootaloo to her hooves with one wing.
“We have overdone it, I think.
I should bring you home, before your aunt is worried about you.”
The way back to Sunny Rays home blurred for Scootaloo into a stumbling and be carrying around by the friendly mare. The night had fallen and a thin moon stood deep over the houses. Nopony answered the knocking at the door and so Fluttershy had to carry the sleep fighting filly right into her bed. She smiled gently for a goodbye and closed the door quietly. Scootaloo turned over and yawned for a long time. How could so many time went by and how could she be so tired? She snuggled into her pillow, closed her eyes and felt asleep shortly after that.
Sunny Rays entered her home, closed the door as silently as she could and sneaked into the living room. I was way too late for the filly, so she presumed, that Scootaloo would be in bed right now. She had tried to find something, what could make Scootaloo happy again. She found it in a home much more lonely than hers, Blaze's place. She put down her saddlebags, listened and set up everything on Scootaloo's place. Then she sneaked into Scootaloo's room and looked at her in the twilight. The pale moonlight shined in the face of the filly, which bucked off and struggled with her blanket in a failed attempt to flee her dreams. Sunny sighed, stepped closer to the bed and touched the filly with her wing. She caressed over her face, the gentle touching calmed her instantly down and Scootaloo turned over to her. She fumbled for her blanket and pulled it back over herself. She mumbled something between two dreams.
“Thanks, aunt Sunny.”
Her aunt smiled and turned over. She stopped at the door and turned her head to the bed again. How could Scootaloo know, that she was here?
The night rushed past Scootaloo and she toiled herself with many nightmares. This time she fled from green staring eyes, from cold hooves and from the loneliness in a dark forest. Even the odour and a gently pet from aunt Sunny was just a short term help. For this time Luna didn't show up and she galloped through an abandon Cloudsdale, in search for the Curryparadise. But it wasn't where it had to be! There was only an empty cloud.
“Scootaloo, come on, wake up.”
A gentle wing tore away her dream and the last failed attempt to flee and rescued her into a warm summer morning. Sunny fondled away the last nightmare and the filly opened her eyes. Her aunt stood beside her bed and had a hesitant smile on her face. She pulled the filly back on her hooves and pushed her to the bathroom.
“Go wash your face, Scootaloo.
The breakfast is already ready and we have to pick up Sweetie Belle soon.”
Scootaloo yawned, wiped over her eyes and stretched herself.
“Pick up, for what?”
This fled her mouth, but Sunny Rays had turned over and left the room already. The filly sighed and went into the bathroom to make herself ready. The cold water in her face woke her finally up and after she had smoothed her mane with one hoof and gave herself a short living smile in the mirror she entered the living room. The room was empty and greeted her with silence, so she sneaked to her place. There was something different though, two letter were laying on the left side of her plate and on the right side stood a small present, wrapped in dark red paper. She looked at both of it, until aunt Sunny stepped in the room with a platter in her front hooves. First her eyes were sticking on her present, but as Sunny put a pancake on her plate, she raised her look and put a small grin on her face.
“I thought, you need some encouragement from me, Scootaloo.”
The filly opened her mouth, raised a hoof and pondered for a good answer. She started to shake her head, tried to smile, but it faded away quickly. Sunny stepped closer and looked directly into the filly's eyes. She laid a hoof on her shoulder and sounded really serious.
“No excuses.
I have got a letter from Twilight and I'm really worrying about you.
So, we're spending the whole day together.
I won't watch you, sink down into much more sadness, you understand.
Your Mum would be worried if she know this and so am I.”
Scootaloo tried to shied away from her aunt's strong eyes, as she saw the first tears in them. Sunny put a wing around her head and held her in place. She stepped closer.
“And not just me are worried about you.
These two letters are from Twilight and Sweetie Belle!
And Fluttershy has even visited me in the morning!
You can talk with her, but not with me?
I'm not your...Mum, but I...”
Sunny Rays shut her eyes closed and turned away, as her voice went faster and higher. She bit away a sob and breathed out heavily. Her wings were flapping multiple times and blew away the clouds, who had come out of her mouth.
“I'm sorry aunt...”
Before the filly was able to fulfil her low apology, Sunny Rays answered with a louder cry.
“No Scootaloo, I'm sorry.
I should pay more attention to you and should help you.
But I had put my work in the first place.
Please forgive me.”
Scootaloo nodded and glided of her chair. She sneaked slowly beside her aunt and huddled hesitantly against her side. Two hooves picked her up, a gentle long hug followed. Scootaloo could hear the sobs of her aunt, who was burying her face in the mane of the filly and cried.
“I'm...I'm so sorry, Sunny.”
She whispered, before she returned the hug and put both hooves around the neck of her aunt.