Sunny Rays and a call for help.
Sweetie Belle yawned and snuggled closer to Scootaloo.
“Just five more minutes, please Mummy.”
The other filly struggled and freed herself from her friends crushing hug. She jumped off the bed, fluttered quickly and landed secure on all four hooves. Scootaloo turned to the door and called her friend loudly.
“No, right now.
I have to talk with aunt Sunny!”
Scootaloo left the room, before the unicorn could answer.
Sunny Rays yawned covertly, hovered closer to the bowl full of dough and started to knead it again. She lifted her right hoof to her lips as quiet as possible and tasted it.
“A little bit of sugar and then it's perfect.”
Rumbling hooves and a call drew her attention away from the dough and to the door. Quickly galloping hooves sounded louder and louder and Sunny put on an inquiring expression.
Scootaloo was already up.
The filly rushed into the kitchen, looked around and sneaked closer to the mare. She hemmed and hawed, opened her wings a little bit and closed them again.
“Say; Sunny...”
Her tail waved nervously and she sighed gently. The mare smiled and landed beside her. She raised a hoof, but before she could touch the filly, she spotted the dough on it and stopped.
“Could we pleaseflytoCloudsdale and visit Mum there!
Pretty please.”
Aunt Sunny opened her mouth and looked firmly into the pleading eyes of the filly. She put her dough covered hooves gently on her cheek and wiped gently over it.
“I don't think, that's a good idea.
Featherflu is very contagious and we don't want,
that you are taken sicken too.”
Scootaloo wiped away her aunts hoof with her own and turned away. She sneaked to the door and mumbled to herself.
“But I have to tell her, that I'm missing her.
And I don't know, how I can write that.”
She opened the door, while she talked and slouched her shoulders. Sunny caught her with her wing and snuggled her closely to her chest, before she was able to leave the room.
“You know, I would help you with that.
I could write the letter with you and when you want to, we can bring it to the post office together.”
Scootaloo fled her hugging hooves, started to draw lines on the ground and looked down to her hooves. She sighed and raised her head.
“Please, Sunny. I must... I must go to her and talk with her, please.”
Her pleading was so pitiful that Sunny started to tremble and kneeled down to have her eyes on the same level as Scootaloos. She wiped gently over her mane and peered in her eyes. The insecurity in them let her think about her actions, but she shook the head finally and led Scootaloo back to her seat.
“What's the matter, Scootaloo?
Do you have a nightmare again?”
The last question sounded almost like mums. The filly raised her head frightened, stared to her aunt and nodded finally. The mare sighed again and caressed over the fillys mane with one wing.
“Do you want to talk about it with me, or with somepony else?”
Sunny turned around and her voice sounded lower. The filly raised a hoof and tapped at Sunnys side. But the mare didn't respond. So the filly sat down on her chair, put her head behind her front hooves and tried to hide behind the orange walls.
“Oh you know, I don't know.
Every time I do actually sleep I have nightmares.
Every time I wake up and get up after having them, I'm getting ever more unhappy.
It doesn't change anything, when I'm talking about it. No matter who I'm talking to.
I think that Mummy may know what to do to make me feel better again.”
This barrage came out of hooves, first slow, than faster and faster. Sunny laid a hoof on her shoulder and smeared dough on it. The mare sounded calm and gentle, but her hoof trembled. Scootaloo could feel it.
“And you think, I couldn't help you with that?”
Scootaloo looked up and shook her head. She shut her eyes closed and wiped over them with one hoof.
“I don't mean to. I think, that Mummy is the one pony who can fix it easily.
And you...”
Scootaloo laid her hoof an the one on her shoulder and looked to her aunt. Her voice became lower and she sighed finally.
“I will get used to it, Sunny. Surely I will.
I don't want to sound bad, or that I'm mad at you.
Or, that I want to go home.
But I miss Mummy so much. Her voice, her hugs.
Everything.
But I can't write her that.
Not when she is so ill.”
Scootaloo started to rattle on and sobbed finally. She wiped over her face quickly and forced a smile back on it.
“I mean, I can't make her unhappy too and write about my problems only.
She is ill and alone.
I'm just alone.
I have to be brave, help her and see to it that she's getting better soon.”
Sunny searched a spot, where she could intervene, but Scootaloo was way to fast for that. She brought up too many issues too fast. So the mare listened and tried to calm down the filly with her presence.
She knew she had to say something, as the last word came out of the filly's mouth finally. She caressed gently over the fillys mane with one wing and raised her chin gently.
“Don't you think, it is our task to help her, Scootaloo?
I think all what matters for her is that you are honest with her.
When you are unhappy she should know it.”
Sunny let loose of the filly and smiled gently.
“If I'm able to help you, I will.
Come on, tell me your dreams and maybe I can take you by surprise.”
Scootaloo giggled shortly, she didn't know exactly why. It didn't matter, so she nodded and started to tell Sunny.
The more she told, the more confused Sunny appeared to be and as Scootaloo got to the last dream, the mare's wings started to flap and she pranced over the floor.
The filly on the other hoof was getting calmer and calmer and sighed relived finally.
“And you have dreamed all of this, Scootaloo?”
Her voice sounded harried and Sunny cleared her throat.
The filly nodded and looked to the trembling wings of her aunt.
“Do you know, what the dreams could mean?”
Sunnys tail waved away an imaginary swarm of flies and she took a deep breath. She laid a hoof back on Scootaloos side and forced a smile back on her face.
“Honestly, I don't know. Exactly.
They are very, well, depressing and quite strange.”
Scootaloo drooped her head and sighed silently. Her aunt wasn't able to help too. She didn't have any idea.
Sunny raised both hooves and left off with a few wing flaps. She hovered in front of Scootaloos face and laid both hooves on Scootaloos shoulders. She tried to smile encouraging.
“But I will find a solution. I promise.
First I think you can learn one thing from your dreams.
You need more friends!
They will be able to help you and, well, could give advices I don't have.”
The filly just shook her head and bit her lips.
“But this didn't work neither. Neither Twilight nor Fluttershy, or any other pony were able to help me.”
She tried to push down the hooves and stand up, but Sunny didn't let her go and caressed over her head with one wing.
“You're not looking for a grown up friend!
They will be similar to Curryfeather in one way or another and so you will see her in them. This won't change your unhappiness, you know?
Look out for more fillies or colts, besides Sweetie Belle and show them, that you're more, than just the sad little filly.”
Scootaloo sighed quietly and shook her head.
“I'm invited to a Cuteenera, but the pony is mean and I don't like her. I don't want to go.”
Her voice sounded much more affected and she wiped over her face once more. Sunny Rays smiled and raised her face with one hoof.
“You should go, really that's your only course of action.
You can find more friends there.
It has worked out for me, so it will work for you too.”
Scootaloo looked into her eyes and put on an inquiring expression, but she wasn't able to ask something. Sweetie Belle ran in the kitchen instead and frowned at her friend.
“You woke me up, Scootaloo!”
She yawned and pricked Scootaloo in the side. Just now she spotted the reddened eyes of her friend and sighed again.
“Did you have a nightmare again?”
The filly nodded and a smile raised on her face.
“Sunny has helped me, Sweetie.
Thanks aunt Sunny.”
The mare looked after her niece and the smaller unicorn, as both of them ran out of the kitchen. Scootaloo giggled and whispered something to Sweetie Belle.
Sunny could indeed spot a few tears in Scootaloos eyes, but her voice didn't sound so harried, as it did before. She cleaned her hooves and looked out for a pen and paper in a drawer. She wrote a letter quickly and folded it together, as she finished it.
“I have to ask Twilight. The cake!”
Her voice sounded over the dough and she frowned.
The rest of the day went smoothly till one fateful event.
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo imagined, how Celestia would be and the unicorn told her friend from her meeting with the princess during the Summer Sun Celebration. Unexpressed dreams of actually conversations with the princess were floating their minds and their faces were beaming in joy. The fillies bounced around in the house and babbled faster and faster.
Sunny Rays had a hard time to contain them and tried a game first, then the packing of their saddle bags to distract them, but that was just a waste of time.
“How long, till Princess Celestia arrives, aunt Sunny?”
This question repeated itself every five minutes, or less and Scootaloo galloped to the door every time she asked. Sunny caught her every time too and led her back to the kitchen, before she could open the door.
“Be patient a little bit longer, please. We'll go out in a few minutes.“
The filly grinned widely and her tail waved excited.
The minutes had past finally and the three ponies started.
They were opening the doors into, a chaos much worse than Nightmare Moons return.