"The what now?" Apple Bloom asked, thoroughly confused.
"The Void. The Nothing Between Universes. The Blind Eternities," the voice answered. "Names philosophers have given to a place that didn't exist. A theoretical place of "what if?" scenarios and "how come?" questions. Now, that the wishes have been granted, and the universes split, it exists out of necessity, and even then only barely. In it, we are everywhere at once, and nowhere at all. Time does not exist, and reality is meaningless."
"Did you understand any of that?" Apple Bloom asked the others.
"Maaaaaybe every other word..." Sweetie Belle replied. "Or every third..."
"But... why did you bring us here?" Scootaloo asked the voice. "And what happened to my legs? Did you heal them?"
"I didn't do anything to your legs. They're sill in casts," it answered. "What you see here aren't actually your real bodies. They're still in your universe, right where you left them. I just pulled your minds and souls into the Void, and you instinctively created an image of your body as you perceive it. Reality in the Void is shaped by your thoughts. When we are done here, you can return to your bodies, no harm done."
"So, if I just think about it..." Sweetie Belle said, and the blackness around them disappeared, replaced with the Crusader's Clubhouse, or at least an illusion of it.
"Exactly! Now, as for why you are here," the voice continued, "it's because this is the only place you can give me your wish. Your wish is tied to your very soul, and they are normally inseparable. Here, though, you only need to will it, and it you can remove it altogether."
"Hold up just a minute here," Apple Bloom said, cutting in. "What the hay is this thing talkin' about? You said you didn't wish for anythin'!"
"I... I lied..." Scootaloo admitted, hanging her head in shame.
"What, were you embarrassed about it?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Kinda... It was such a big wish, and it changed a lot of stuff. I was afraid of what you'd all think if you found out."
"Aw, come on, Scootaloo. We don't care what you wished for!" Apple Bloom said, attempting to cheer up her downtrodden friend.
"Rainbow Dash said the same thing, but..." But she forgave me, Scootaloo thought. That doesn't change how much I hurt her, though...
"But nothing!" Apple Bloom replied. "You're our friend, and your problems are our problems!"
"Yeah!" Sweetie Belle agreed. "We're the Cutie Mark Crusaders! Like we'd let a stupid wish slow us down!"
"You're right," Scootaloo said, unable to keep herself from smiling a little bit. That smile soon faded, however, and Scootaloo decided to come clean. "I wished that Rainbow Dash and I were sisters, and we're here now so that I can fix it." Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom stared in disbelief at Scootaloo's revelation for a few seconds, before Sweetie Belle finally spoke up.
"Scootaloo..." she began, and the young pegasus cringed, bracing herself for more scolding. "That's an amazing wish!"
"What?"
"I mean it! If you've always looked up to Rainbow Dash the way I remember it, even before you made your wish, then it must be a dream come true! Not to mention how well you two always get along! You two inspired me to wish to live with Rarity and help her out more!"
"Why in the world would you want to give that all up?" Apple Bloom asked. "Y'all are family now!"
"Because it's not fair!" Scootaloo explained. "Thanks to my wish, my old parents never met each other, Rainbow Dash's family is all messed up, and she had been blaming herself the whole time! It's not fair to any of them for me to have changed their lives like that!"
"Aren't you just doin' the same thing here? Goin' and changin' their lives without permission?" Apple Bloom countered.
"This is different! This is fixing everything!" ...Isn't it?
"I don't know..." Sweetie Belle said. "What if your wish made somepony's life better? Wouldn't it be bad to change it back?"
"I... But..." Scootaloo thought about the ponies her wish had affected. Dad's a Wonderbolt now, because my wish let him follow his dreams... Mom met someone else, and is getting married... Should I take that away? But Rainbow Dash... "It doesn't matter... They had happy lives either way. Rainbow Dash and her family getting their lives back is worth it."
"What about them? Would they want you to change things back?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"We talked a lot with your mom on the way here," Apple Bloom said. "She's tryin' as hard as she can to make things up to you, and I know she wouldn't give you up for the world!"
"That's only because she feels guilty for something that wasn't her fault!" Scootaloo shouted, stomping on the imaginary wooden floor. "It's my fault, not hers! I have to do this! For Rainbow Dash, for her family-"
"Then let them decide, Scootaloo!" Sweetie Belle cut her off. "Just because you're saying that it's your fault, doesn't mean that it's your fault! You couldn't have known what would happen!"
"Granny Smith always tells me that we have to lie in the bed we make for ourselves, but that our family shares it with us," Apple Bloom said. "They're your family now, and they care 'bout you. We care 'bout you! I don't know what the right choice is here, but I don't think you know either. You don't have to choose alone, Scootaloo." Scootaloo said nothing, turning to stare out the clubhouse window at the illusion of the apple orchard.
Maybe they're right... This isn't my choice... Scootaloo thought.
"She has to choose now, though," the voice said, finally speaking up. "Once you return, I can't bring you back here again, and if I can't have your wish, then I can't use it to go home..."
"Then, you can just have my wish!" Apple Bloom closed her eyes for a moment, and an orb of white light appeared in front of her. "Here, I just wished for a room full of candy. It doesn't matter if you take it."
"I can't use your wish," the voice said.
"Why not?"
"It has to be Scootaloo's."
"Wait, it has to be my wish?" Scootaloo turned back towards the rest of the group. "I thought you picked me because we both wanted to fix things that went wrong, and didn't you say that you asked others?"
"I asked others, yes, in many different worlds, but they were all you, Scootaloo. Different versions of you." the voice answered. "It has always been about you. We're connected, whether you know it or not."
"We're connected? Why? Who are you?"
"To be perfectly honest, I'm not even sure anymore," the voice answered. "Time almost stands still while you're in the Void, and I've been here so long... I stopped giving myself a form long ago. I can remember who I was, though. Who I can return to being if I can get a second wish..." Across the room from the Crusaders, a familiar white mist appeared and began swirling, moving faster and faster until it vanished in a flash of light. In its place stood a familiar, young pegasus filly, with a deep orange coat and a messy, purple mane. "I was you, Scootaloo."
"...Scootaloo?" Sweetie Belle did a double take, looking from the first Scootaloo to the new one.
"You're... me? From another world?" Scootaloo asked her doppelganger.
"Yes," the other Scootaloo answered in her own voice.
"But... how?"
"Let me show you, and prove that I'm telling the truth..." The clubhouse vanished, and the Crusaders were plunged into the nothing of the Void.
Darkness.
Scootaloo wandered aimlessly in that darkness, calling out to anypony who might be able to hear her. Nopony answered. She had no idea how she got to where she was, only that one moment she was playing with her friends, and the next she was here, and everything was gone. She just wanted to go home. And so she did.
She found herself in front of a house, built in the center of a small clearing. Home.
"Mom! Dad!" the filly called out as she galloped inside. Her mother was in the kitchen, preparing dinner while her father sat at the kitchen table, relaxing after a long day at work.
"Welcome home, dear!" her mother said from the stove.
"There's my little scooter maniac!" her father said enthusiastically. "How was school today?"
"Good," the filly answered, "though I think I dozed off sometime near the end of class. I had the strangest dream..."
"Well, sounds like you had some fun today!" her father said cheerfully, ruffling his daughter's mane with a hoof.
"I... guess?" Scootaloo said, puzzled by the stallion's odd response. "So, what's for dinner?" the filly asked her mother, just like she did every evening.
"I managed to get some fresh blueberries in town today, so I thought we might have breakfast for dinner. I know how you love blueberry pancakes!"
"Sounds great! But... didn't we have the same thing yesterday?"
"I knew you'd like it!" Her mother turned and smiled at her, not answering the question. "Now run along and get cleaned up for dinner. We don't want any dirty hooves on the table."
"Yes, Mom..." Scootaloo trotted out of the room, not sure what to make of her parents' behavior. Once she had washed the dirt off her hooves, she returned to the kitchen and took a seat at the table. Her parents were still right where she had left them. They continued their activities in awkward silence for about a minute before Scootaloo finally spoke up. "Is something wrong? You guys are acting kinda weird..."
"Welcome home, dear!" her mother said, repeating herself.
"What?"
"There's my little scooter maniac! How was school today?" her father said with the exact same enthusiastic tone of voice he had before.
"What? You already said all that!"
"Well, sounds like you had some fun today!"
"Dad, snap out of it!" Scootaloo shouted at her father.
"I managed to get some fresh blueberries in town today," her mother began.
"Not you too, Mom! What's going- "
"-so I thought we might have breakfast for dinner. I know how you love blueberry pancakes!"
"Stop it..." Scootaloo closed her eyes and put her head down on the table, hoping that it was all just a bad dream. "Please..."
"I knew you'd like it! Now run along and get cleaned up for dinner. We don't want any dirty hooves on the table."
"Stop it!"
"Welcome home, dear!"
"STOP!"
The room fell deathly silent after Scootaloo's scream. Opening her eyes, she found herself in the darkness again, and it was as if she hadn't even opened her eyes at all. None of it had been real. Just a memory, played over and over again. Not to be discouraged, though, the filly continued to search, sure that she'd find her way home eventually...
"That was just the start," the Void Scootaloo said, sighing heavily. "It took what seemed like ages, but I eventually found another world. I quickly learned that it was not my own, though. My body wasn't there to return to, and things were slightly different. Tweaks to the universe made by wishes. I almost gave up right there before deciding to do the one thing I could do: I read. In the Void, time stands still, and the universe was laid bare before me to look at. Every detail of it. I read books, examining their contents from outside the universe, learning as much as I could about the magic I was sure was behind all of this. I found that with a source of energy, I could cast spells if I focused enough, a benefit of not having a real body, and I devised this plan to return home. When the Scootaloo of that universe declined my offer, I searched for another. It took what felt like years from my perspective, but I eventually found one. The result was the same." The clubhouse rematerialized around the group, and the void filly stared at her double longingly. "I've been searching for so long... I'm not sure how much longer I can keep it up..."
Scootaloo was at a loss.
My friends are right. I can't give up my wish when it affect so many other ponies, but what about her? How can I just leave myself behind in this place to wander for who knows how long? There has to be an answer... Scootaloo sat down and closed her eyes, focusing on anything she could to help her. Memories flashed before her, and the dreamscape of the back half clubhouse faded, replaced by rapidly shifting, blurred images of the past. The front of the clubhouse remained intact, with all four fillies still standing in it.
"Scootaloo, what are you doing?" Sweetie Belle asked, looking away to prevent the constantly shifting scenery from making her dizzy. The filly did not answer, simply continuing to concentrate.
"I don't think we can help her anymore, Sweetie Belle," Apple Bloom said. "It's all up to her..."
"I can send you two home now, if you'd like," the Void Scootaloo said, and the front door of the clubhouse swung open to reveal a rainbow colored space beyond. "If you walk through that door, you will return to your bodies on the dais. The colors you see there are from the Elements of Harmony being used, but they're harmless to the likes of you."
"But what about Scootaloo?"
"Once she has made her choice, she will follow you. Thanks to the time dilation, you'll all arrive back in your bodies at approximately the same time. She'll be fine, I promise."
The two fillies nodded and approached the door, looking back at their friend one last time before leaping through the portal. With Sweetie Belle gone, the illusion of the clubhouse vanished completely, consumed by Scootaloo's swirling memories. This continued for a while until it finally came to a stop, and Scootaloo opened her eyes. She found herself standing on a cloud high in the sky overlooking Ponyville. The sun hung low in the west, turning the sky a beautiful combination of reds and oranges.
"Have you made your decision?" Her doppelganger asked, appearing in front of her.
"Yeah," Scootaloo said, taking a deep breath. "I... can't give you my wish."
"What? Why? Everything will return to the way it was, and I can finally go home! Everypony wins!"
"I just can't. There's too much that I shouldn't mess with. Too much that you shouldn't mess with. This is bigger than both of us. I'm sorry..."
"Too much for me? Bigger than me? You have no idea what I am capable of!" The second Scootaloo's form exploded with light, blinding the first. When the light faded, the doppelganger was gone. In her place stood a pony several times the height of Scootaloo herself, similar in stature and form to Princess Celestia herself. Her orange coat glowed softly in the fading sunlight, and with her wings spread wide, she cast the entire cloud into shadow. She had a flowing ethereal mane and tail that retained their original purple color around the edges, but faded to an empty blackness towards the center, like the Void itself. The horn atop her head lit up with a familiar white aura, and Scootaloo was lifted from the cloud and brought to eye-level with the mare. "I am Master of the Void, having traveled its expanses for an amount of time incomprehensible to the likes of you!" she shouted, her voice distorted like it had been when she first spoke to Scootaloo, but louder and angrier. "I have willed entire worlds into existence, and destroyed them with a mere thought. Who are you to say what is beyond my means? With you I have the power to end this existence and return to one like yours!"
"You have the power, but that doesn't give you the right!" Scootaloo shouted. "Nopony has the right to toy with lives like that. Not me, not Princess Luna, and definitely not you!"
"I can make you give it to me," the alicorn of the Void said coldly. "Even if I had to tear the very essence of your being to pieces, I could take your wish if I chose to do so."
"But you won't, will you?" Scootaloo asked. "You promised me that I could walk away if I wanted to. If you're really me, you'd never break a promise like that!" Scootaloo closed her eyes and concentrated, willing herself out of the levitation spell and back to the cloud. The mare said nothing and made no attempt to stop her. Instead, she only closed here eyes and laid down on the cloud, as if resigning herself to her fate. Again exerting her will on the Void, Scootaloo made the door that her friends had stepped through reappear behind her. "If you really want to end this, then come with me!"
"What?" the pony said, opening her eyes and using her normal voice once again.
"Stay here, in my universe. No more aimless searching. No more meddling with the lives of others. No more loneliness. I'm sure Twilight and the Princesses can figure something out for you."
"But... what about my home?"
"Do you know where we are?" Scootaloo gestured to the cloud around them. "If you're me, then I'm sure you remember coming here once, and I'm sure you'll remember the promise we made. Another promise we should never have broken..." Scootaloo turned away from her double, and the door swung open to reveal the same scene it did before: the Elements of Harmony striking the dais. "I'm going back now. You can keep searching if you want, but I hope you follow me. Nopony deserves to be alone like this." With that, Scootaloo stepped through the door, and the Void vanished from her view.
Please be okay! Please be okay! Please be okay! No sooner had Rainbow Dash's hooves touched the ground again when she galloped off towards the dais, which was still engulfed in the multicolored whirlwind created by the Elements of Harmony. She reached it just as the energy began to fade, revealing not only Scootaloo, but Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom as well, simply standing still and looking rather disoriented. Their presence there was puzzling, but unimportant at the moment. "Scoots!" Dash shouted and hopped onto the dais. The filly stared at the ground, unable to meet the mare's gaze.
"I've really made a mess of everything, haven't I?" she said quietly without looking up.
"Well... yeah. You definitely did. No denying that." Rainbow Dash replied, looking at the downtrodden filly and smiling. "But it's nothing we can't figure out together." She ruffled the filly's mane with a hoof.
"Together? You mean you don't care that it's all... fake?"
"Of course I care!" Rainbow Dash said, her smile fading. "I'm still not sure what exactly to think of all this. I do know two things, though. First, I shouldn't have gotten so angry at you. You never meant to do anything. Second, I remember my life with you. Everypony else remembers it too. Everypony but you. From my point of view, if anypony's memories are fake, yours are." Without saying another word, Scootaloo leaped at her sister, hugging her tight, or as tight as she could with casts on her legs. The filly buried her face in Dash's coat and began to cry, and the mare simply smiled again and held her even tighter. "Everything is going to be okay."
"Apple Bloom!" Applejack shouted as she galloped up to her sister. "What in tarnation are ya doin' here?"
"Sweetie Belle, you too?" Rarity said, joining Applejack at the front of the room. "How in the world did you two get here?"
"That would be my doing," Rainbow Dash's mother said, stepping forward. "They were dead set on chasing after Scootaloo, so I decided to escort them. If I tried to send them home, they would have just sneaked away and followed you all anyway. I told them to wait outside the castle, but I guess there was no stopping them."
"Yeah, they probably would've gotten themselves into trouble no matter what. Thanks for watchin' out for 'em, ma'am" Applejack said.
"You two fillies should know better than to do something so foolish, though!" Rarity said, scolding them. "Who knows what could have happened!"
"We're sorry..." the two fillies said in unison.
"And you'll have a long time to think about just how sorry you are when you're cleaning up my workshop, Sweetie Belle," Rarity said. "And I think Apple Bloom should help, too. What do you think, Applejack?"
"That sounds like a great idea, Rarity," Applejack replied slyly, smiling at Apple Bloom.
"Awwwwww..."
"Um, sorry to interrupt the family reunion here," Twilight Sparkle said, joining the group, "but who is that?" She pointed behind Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, at a pony laying crumpled on the ground. She was a young mare, looking to be a only be one or two years younger than the likes of Twilight or Rainbow Dash, but otherwise looked identical Scootaloo, right down to the blank flank and undersized wings. There was one other key difference, though. The mare also had a horn. Wiping the tears from her eyes, Scootaloo turned around to look at the pony, quickly realizing who she was.
"I think... that's me."
"Hey, Scoots! Wake up!"
Scootaloo yawned and blinked as the waking world came back into focus. She was in her bed made of clouds, the bed she had finally come to accept as her real bed. As she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, the events of the last two days rushed back to her. After Scootaloo had explained the situation in full to the ponies at the castle, her double had been taken back to Canterlot for medical care and examination by Princess Luna, who assured them that everything in her and her sister's power would be done to help her. When asked why the double looked so much different than Scootaloo, Luna could only theorize, guessing that the Elements of Harmony had affected her similarly to how they had affected Luna when she was Nightmare Moon, giving her a body that best represented who she was deep down inside, and the immeasurable amount of time that she had spent in the Void channeling its power had fundamentally altered her soul. Now all that was left was to adjust.
"Scootaloo! Don't make me get you out of bed myself," her mother called from down the hall. Oddly enough, she had needed the least amount of time to adjust to the news of Scootaloo's wish. In her own words: "There's no point dwelling on what might have been rather than what is. As for your father... I doubt your wish changed who he was deep down. If he was really the type to use his family as tools, then I wouldn't want to be with him regardless of how many daughters I have, and I have you to thank for showing me that."
"I'm coming!" Scootaloo called back as she rolled out of bed and onto the cloud floor. It felt good to be out of those casts. As puzzled as the doctors were, as far as they could tell, she was completely healed. Rainbow Dash told her that she saw the Elements of Harmony regrow Rarity's tail once, so they were probably responsible. If only they could have done something about my wings... the filly thought as she trotted down the hall.
"There you are!" Rainbow Dash greeted her in the living room "I know you wanted to sleep in this weekend, but Pinkie Pie invited us all to Sugarcube Corner for breakfast again, and I thought you'd like to come."
"Sure," Scootaloo said, yawning a bit. "I cut out early last time, so I need to make it up to her anyway."
"All right!" Rainbow Dash replied. "Watch out, though. Remember that one time Pinkie decided to conduct your birthday party personally? We were washing the cake batter from that explosion out your coat for hours!" Rainbow Dash laughed at the memory, and even their mother chuckled at the mental image.
"No... I don't," Scootaloo replied dejectedly, cutting her sister's laughter short.
"Oh... right..." The family stood in awkward silence for a while before Rainbow Dash abruptly changed the subject. "Hey Scoots, bet you can't beat me into town!"
"Oh yeah? You're on!" The sisters took off out the door, the elder of the two giving Scootaloo a slight head start to get to her scooter while turning to wink at their mother, who simply smiled and followed behind the pair, not bothering to try and keep up. Scootaloo rocketed down the cloud ramp and onto the road, Rainbow Dash flying low above her head. In less than a minute they had made it into town, ponies waving at them as they raced past. As they neared their destination, Rainbow Dash put on one last burst of speed and landed casually in front of the door a few seconds before Scootaloo skidded to a stop next to her.
"Better luck next time, Scoots!"
"Luck has nothing to do with it. I'll get faster, you just wait and see!" Scootaloo shot back, hopping off the scooter and propping it up against the wall.
"Gladly, sis." Rainbow Dash smiled, and the two walked into the building.
"Hey, what's going on?" Scootaloo asked as the door swung shut behind them. "Why are all the lights out? Are they closed today?"
"Oh no..." Rainbow Dash said, realizing what was going on just as the lights switched on.
"SURPRISE!"
"So, do you like my ultra-super-secret-now-you're-sisters-forever-surprise party, Dashie? Do ya? Do ya?" Pinkie Pie said, bouncing around the blue pegasus as the party went into full swing. "I've been planning it for almost a week now!"
"It's great, Pinkie, it's just what she- wait, a week? You just learned about what was going on a day ago!"
"Well, duh!" the party pony said, stopping her bouncing momentarily. "But I wished to be able to throw the best surprise party ever for the ponies who needed it most, and somehow I just knew it was going to be you two! That's why I couldn't tell you what I wished for: it would ruin the surprise!"
"That... makes a surprising amount of sense. At least for you," Rainbow Dash said. "Thanks."
"You betcha! Ooh! It's time for the party games!" Pinkie Pie suddenly sprung into action and ran off into the crowd. "Hey, Scootaloo! Wanna play Pin the Tail on the Pony?" Somehow managing to round up the majority of the foals in Ponyville, Pinkie began the game with Scootaloo first in line. Rainbow Dash watched from the sidelines and gave a sigh of relief. Everything was going to be just fine. For real, this time.
"Hey, Rainbow, what's up?" a voice called from the crowd. The pegasus turned to see Twilight trotting up to her.
"Not much, Twi. Just getting on with life, I guess."
"I'm happy to see that everything's turning out okay, especially considering how bad things could have been."
"What do you mean?"
"You know how Scootaloo's wish is the Keystone wish?" Twilight began. "If what she said is true, and the wishes really did create whole universes to prevent contradictions, then..."
"Then what?"
"Then because her wish created this branch universe, undoing her wish would have destroyed it completely."
"What?" Rainbow Dash shouted, causing a few ponies to turn and look at them.
"Shhhh!" Twilight held a hoof up to her mouth and continued in a whisper. "This isn't something anypony else needs to know, especially not Scootaloo. She probably feels guilty enough as it is."
"Yeah... you're right... But to think that that almost happened..."
"It really makes you think, doesn't it? Princess Celestia told me that that's probably what happened to the universe the other Scootaloo came from, and she somehow managed to hang on in the Void. She never was going to find her home, no matter how long she searched..."
"Is she going to be okay?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"I'm not sure. She still has strong connections to the Void, and appears to draw power from it in her magic. The Princesses are going to try and train her in how to best use that power, and hopefully she should be able to find her own path in life. It might do everyone some good if you and Scootaloo visited her every once in a while, though."
"Yeah..." Rainbow Dash looked off at her sister, currently bobbing for apples with the other Cutie Mark Crusaders. "I just wish there was a way for Scootaloo - our Scootaloo - to easily sort her own thoughts out. I get the feeling that she still doesn't quite know how to feel about everything. Heck, I still don't know how to feel."
"Well, it's not a perfect solution..." Twilight said, smiling, "but I know what I do when I have some thoughts to sort out, and I think Scootaloo could probably benefit from it, too."
Dear Princess Celestia,
I've never written to you before, but Rainbow Dash said that I should probably write to you about what I've learned after everything that's happened. Sometimes things happen that nopony can see coming, and sometimes those things aren't something that you can fix by yourself. I tried to go it alone, but ended up causing more problems than if I had simply been honest with everypony from the beginning. I learned that you need to take everyone into consideration when you try to make big decisions, and that it's not fair to them to keep them in the dark. My life is different now, and I'll never forget the way things used to be, but I have a happy family here, just like I did before. If there's anything else I learned, it's something that I had forgotten that I never should have: "Home is where you rest your wings, and who you rest them with." Someone very special to me said that once, but I never really got it until now. I am home here, and I always will be.
Your faithful subject,
Scootaloo