Scootaloo stared at the trees. When she was a filly, they had terrified her. That never stopped her from sneaking into the Everfree Forest, but she had always felt a rush of adrenaline knowing that at any point the foliage could transform into a Timberwolf.
That was before. The whole forest was brown and dead, and it had been years since Timberwolves ceased to exist; the last had been captured by the Tyrant's guards and taken to Canterlot on Lord Fancy's orders.
"As long as you stare, no wolf will stand there," a mare’s voice said from behind her, gentle and low. "The things you must think all lie in the past, and as our sun, they no longer last."
"You haven't lost your touch," Scootaloo said, turning around. Seeing the old zebra again took her back to her youth. For a moment she could almost remember the time she was a Cutie Mark Crusader. She had friends back then...before life happened and they drifted apart. "How are you, Zecora?"
"Your question is hard for one who’s so lost. And as I can see, you've paid your own cost." The zebra approached, glancing at the mare's cutie mark. A white circle surrounded it. "Though it now is dark, I still see your mark."
"Joy." Scootaloo frowned. "So, what have you been up to? The forest seems to be the same, things considered. Beasts still hiding about, I guess?"
"The only beast that roams is not in here, and I'm always glad to see a friend dear." Zecora ruffled Scootaloo's mane. "Come and let us talk now, yourself and me, and enjoy a taste of my herbal tea."
"I really wish you'd stop talking like that." Scootaloo sighed, but followed.
The longer they walked, the more Scootaloo noticed how few plants there were. Once, the ground had been covered with poison joke. Now there wasn't even a blade of grass between the dead tree-trunks. The sun had only been gone for a week and already Equestria was changing. It wasn't as cold as everypony initially feared: there were no storms, no blizzards, no end-of-days cataclysms—only a sense of dull, dreary helplessness no one could escape from.
"Do you think there'll be food without the sun?" Scootaloo asked. The zebra just kept walking, humming a strange tune. "I didn't think so either. I remember how the thought of an eternal night terrified me as a filly, back when Nightmare Moon was a thing. Funny, right?"
Zecora smiled, moving along. So much for small talk. The forest seemed remarkably different, all the more with all the creatures missing. Now and again something familiar would pop up: the horseshoe tree on which Scootaloo and her friends would pin a horseshoes in the middle of the night on a dare, the Pine of Promises where they had made unbreakable vows, the Tree of Flight... Scootaloo winced. It was there that Rainbow Dash had tried to teach her how to fly. A futile experience, but also the best time of the filly's life. If there was anything she could give to turn back time and make those memories real again, she would do it.
"We have arrived at the hut you once knew," Zecora announced as they approached. "Sorry to say that I have only stew."
"That's okay." Scootaloo attempted a smile. "I don't need food anyway." Not since Trixie cursed me to this eternal existence. She stepped inside the hut. "Tea’s fine. I haven't had a drink in—"
Scootaloo froze. The hut was dimly lit and full of smoke, yet she could still see who else was inside: the faces of childhood friends she had forgotten.
"Apple Bloom? Sweetie Belle?" She couldn't hide her surprise. Years had passed and yet they still seemed so young, almost unchanged since Rainbow Dash's funeral. Back then Scootaloo had yelled at them, she had yelled at the world. She had said things that shouldn't be said, and she had meant every word.
"Hey, Scootaloo." Sweetie Belle looked up from her book. Apple Bloom didn't bother, still stirring the concoction in Zecora's cauldron and letting the unicorn carry the burden of conversation. "You look well."
"Yeah." The pegasus glanced at her friends’ cutie marks—both bore the Tyrant's circle. "You too." So you're cursed too, huh? her glance asked. Sweetie Belle looked away, and Scootaloo changed the subject. "What are you reading?"
"Rarity's Fashion Advice," Sweetie Belle said, flipping a page with her muzzle. "Nearly a bestseller in Canterlot and Manehattan, and undoubtedly a smashing success in the Crystal Empire if any publisher had agreed."
Sarcastic as ever. Good to see some things never change. I guess. Scootaloo snorted.
"But really, I was just looking at the pictures." The unicorn closed the book. "There’s not enough light to read, and no magic to make any either. You? I heard you went into show business."
"Yeah, something like that."
Trixie would have loved to hear her act described in such a way. In truth, Sweetie Belle wasn't far off. After everything collapsed into bleakness, the shows Trixie had put on were the only thing that still touched ponies' hearts...until the Tyrant got to her too.
"How you doing, Apple Bloom?" Scootaloo asked, looking around for a place to sit. The only choices were a few dirty rugs, a small table, and a chair near the cauldron in the center of the hut. The pegasus considered between spots on the ground, finally deciding to lean against the wooden wall. "Brewing is looking—" she eyed the green fumes coming from the mixture "—good."
"It'th tea." Apple Bloom stirred the brew a few more times and let go of the ladle, leaving it to be taken by inertia. "With roots. Ain't no more leaves to use."
"Ah." Scootaloo nodded. "At least it tastes like something?"
"Yeah, at least it—" Apple Bloom stopped. Her face twisted in grief. Before a single tear could appear, however, the mare kicked some dust in the air, looking away. "Why are you pretending? We ain't seen you in years, and you can’t just un-say what you said before that. At least I visited Sweetie Belle when Zecora took her in. You—" she pointed at the pegasus with a glare "—left us. The Scoots we knew died with Rainbow Dash. You’re just her shadow."
A dull pain clamped down on Scootaloo's stomach. There was a time she would start a fight over such words, and there was a time she'd break down at the thought of her idol's death. Now she barely cared. How could she with the end of Equestria so near?
"We're all just shadows." Sweetie Belle said, standing up. She grabbed a cup from the table with her mouth, scooped up some tea, and placed it before Scootaloo. "But at least we got to be together again."
The tea was as bitter as charcoal. Scootaloo took a few sips, then gulped the rest down in one go. Despite its taste, she didn't dare spit it out. This was the first liquid she had had in months.
"What happened to us?" Scootaloo asked, looking down at her empty cup. "We used to be something." She flinched when Apple Bloom snorted. "It's all over, isn't it? No love, no magic, no sun...soon, no Equestria. And we'll be alive to see it all."
"You tried, didn't you?" A smile of pity appeared on Sweetie Belle's face. "It's okay. I did too. I used what magic I had to tie myself to a rock and levitate out to the middle of Ponyville Lake. The pain was there, I just couldn't die."
"Well I didn't," Apple Bloom snapped as she served Zecora’s tea. "My brother and sister gave their lives so I wouldn't be harmed, and I ain't gonna disrespect that!"
"The world is fading, but you’re all here at last. Why stand here and argue about things in the past?" Zecora asked, nodding to Apple Bloom with a gentle smile. "The Tyrant may have twisted the promise he made, but through the giving of others you still are saved."
More like cursed, Scootaloo thought.
"Your sisters and your close ones have given up a lot. Will you squander their gifts now in anger? I think not." Zecora took a sip of her tea. "My cost was my craft, which even he cannot take; the power I give him can have no equal fake. Potions and powders and amulets arcane; all these I give so that I can remain. My dealings with Blueblood have been like those of you three, but it is thanks to such bargains we all can run free."
"Yeah. Lucky us," Scootaloo muttered.
"Luck, hope, and joy are things of which there’s a lack,” Zecora said over her cup. “But at least you three can all have your friends back."
The word made Scootaloo's mane tingle. Friends. It was the most painful word she knew. Whether like Trixie, or Rainbow Dash, or now Apple Bloom, friends always turned around on her one way or another.
Seconds passed in silence, then minutes. Zecora finished her tea and left the hut, muttering something about taking care of the forest. The silence reigned on. Scootaloo didn't know what to say, choosing to glance about the hut in an attempt to avoid looking at her childhood friends. By the end of the first hour she gave up, lying on the rug by the door. Sweetie Belle looked at her, the faint smile on her face, then opened her book once more.
The hours passed slowly. Without the sun, Scootaloo couldn't tell if it was time for bed or not. It was a blessing. With dreams gone for years, sleep was a worse torture than her life: being locked in an vast endless darkness, not seeing, not hearing, not feeling, just aware of her existence. Usually she would remain still instead, eyes wide open, staring at the moon. This time, though, she was kept awake by Apple Bloom’s snoring.
You’ve gotta be kidding me. Scootaloo bit her tongue and looked over to Sweetie Belle. This reminded her of when she had gone camping with the other Crusaders, their sisters, and Rainbow Dash. Rainbow had done all the snoring back then… But though the memory was bittersweet now, how could her once-friend sleep in a world like this?
"I don't know how she does it either," Sweetie Belle whispered. "But she does every night, like clockwork. I couldn't. Even back when I had enough dream rations, I just couldn't—not with Rarity gone."
"I know." I've been there, Sweetie. "Do you two still...talk about the past?"
"Sometimes. Rarely. Apple Bloom spends most of her time with Zecora or gathering roots in the forest. I just keep going through the books I have. It's more a habit now. I know them by heart. I tried writing too, but it didn't help much—it’s too dark to see what I’m writing. What about you? What do you do to keep your head on straight?"
"Well, I traveled across Equestria with—" Scootaloo paused. Remembering her time with Trixie left an aftertaste as bitter as Zecora's tea. A sharp crack from outside grabbed Scootaloo's attention. "Ssh!" She got to her hooves, careful not to make a sound.
"It's just the wind," Sweetie Belle whispered. "It happens all the time. I've gotten used to it."
"Sweetie Belle—" Scootaloo tiptoed towards the door of the hut "—the Tyrant took all the clouds and winds months ago." She cracked the door open. "You wake Apple Bloom. I'll go see what's happening."
Rays of moonlight shone down through the branches as Scootaloo stepped out into the forest; that frail light was the only reminder that Equestria hadn't completely faded away. I'm sure I heard something. Scootaloo crept forward. If it was some Everfree creature, she could relax and go back to lying awake in the hut. She wanted to; after all these years she yearned for an end to the running and the constant fear of pursuit.
"The plot you plot, it is not wise." Zecora’s faint voice was only a short distance away. "This even you must realize."
"You don't understand!" another voice said, this one just as familiar. "We must be ready. If Starlight fails, we won't have another chance."
Trixie? Scootaloo froze in her tracks. She had never expected to see Trixie again. After her betrayal, Scootaloo had done everything in her power to get as far away as possible, and yet here she was in the Everfree Forest. Zecora, why didn't you tell me you were meeting with her too? She gritted her teeth and snuck forward.
"Even if what you say is quite true, there's no way we can win, me and you." Zecora's voice sounded louder, nearer. "The Alicorn Amulet is still in my care, but as you well know, it is too risky to wear. Last time it consumed you, ate you almost to bone. Wear it again and you'll be less pony than stone."
"If that's the price I have to pay, I’ll pay it!" Trixie said. Scootaloo could just barely make out the old showmare’s frame between the trees. Time hadn't been kind to her. The curse had transformed her into a walking bag of bones. "I know that the Tyrant is going to cast one final spell. Everything he's done throughout the years, all the magic he has drained, has been for that own spell. When he casts it he will be vulnerable."
"Your aim is good, but blinded by rage." Zecora sighed. "You see the jailer, but not the cage. Even if you succeed, will it help those in need? In mere weeks the world’s course will be run. You, I, and everything will be undone."
"That's precisely why I want to do this! I know I can't kill the Tyrant, but I can use the amulet to redirect his magic." Trixie stomped on the ground. The bitterness in Trixie’s tone became palpable. "Discord... he showed me how to tear the fabric of reality to reach other worlds just to mock me. He knew it would take more power than even an alicorn could wield. But now I can use the Tyrant's magic to send you and the girls somewhere safe."
No! Scootaloo's body felt numb. I never asked you to do this! I shouldn't be alive, none of us should! Can't you just let us rest once and for all?
A short distance away, Zecora nodded.
“The thing that you want of me is not small to ask, but I’ll give it to you if you’re up to the task.”