Scootaloo was alone.
The oppressive darkness blotted out every other sense. It was a metallic taste on her tongue, a cloying sweetness in her nose, a hot pressure pushing in from every direction. She tossed fitfully under the scratchy blanket, trying to think.
Stray memories made it through the haze. Moving to Canterlot. Lunch with Spike. Talking to Thistleroot about a pony named Star Shine. They’d decided to go warn Twilight.
She managed to push away the darkness enough to feel a dull pain in her head, throbbing with each beat of her heart. She picked her chin up slowly to sweep her gaze through the utter darkness. What had happened at the restaurant? She’d taken Thistleroot as a fake date to avoid suspicion. They’d arrived at a nice place just before sunset and...
A silver flash seared through her mind, driving her head down with a pathetic whimper and bringing tears to her eyes. The pain died quickly, leaving a faint smoldering twinge at the jagged edges of her memory.
“Hello?” she tried to ask through a dry throat. She winced at the harsh sound. After a few swallows, she tried again. “Is anypony there?”
The silence remained unbroken, an almost physical presence in the room. Scootaloo pushed the blanket from her and stood. Her limbs were shaky at first. A terrible hunger was forming in her stomach, growing every second she was awake.
She paced blindly around the room, counting ten steps across and fifteen deep. A solid wooden door stood locked. Other than her blanket, the room was bare.
“Somepony answer me!” she shouted at the door, turning to buck it. It held firmly. “Dash? Twilight?” Scootaloo sank to her haunches, head drooping. “Thistleroot? Sweetie Belle? Applebloom?” She rested her head against the cool stone floor and sighed, “Anypony?”
Scootaloo had no sense of time passing. Fear gnawed at her as she paced and waited. She tried to retrace her steps again, but was forced to the floor in another wave of silver agony.
“What happened to me?” she gasped as the pain faded. Why couldn’t she remember anything?
After what could have been minutes or hours or days, she dozed, thoughts and dreams blending together in a confused haze.
Your friends can’t help you, can they? A familiar voice whispered through her dreams.
Scootaloo groaned in frustration. “Not this again.”
Oh, but I thought you liked our little conversations. You used to spend entire days talking to me.
Scootaloo covered her head with her hooves, tucking her face into the heavy blanket. “You aren’t real.”
Of course not, if I were real I’d have busted you out of here by now. But I can’t do that, can I? Not after being turned to stone and all.
“I’ve gotten over it. I’m done hearing you like this.”
Obviously not. Who knows, maybe you’ve finally cracked. Flown off the deep end. How long have you been here, in the dark, with nopony to talk to? When was the last time you ate or drank?
“I’m not crazy,” Scootaloo insisted.
Then how do you explain me?
“You’re just a dream,” Scootaloo said.
Prove it. Wake up, the voice challenged.
Scootaloo ignored it, shifting the blanket over her ears.
You never visited my statue, you know. I sit every day in the hell of complete silence, hoping for some company.
“You’re not going to make me feel guilty,” Scootaloo said. “After everything you did, you deserve what you got.”
If I recall, it was you who turned the princess into stone.
“Only because you made us,” Scootaloo snapped back.
Made you? Did I make you turn against your friends and take up the element of treachery? Did I force you to lie and hide? I was nothing but a voice when you took those first steps. A whisper on the wind.
“That’s not—”
Deny it all you want, the mark on your flank is proof enough. You’re as much a monster as I am. You question every day why the princess let you off, why anypony would trust you after what you’ve done. You were willing to turn an entire country to chaos out of selfishness.
“I only have this cutie mark because of you.”
I didn’t make you what you are Scootaloo, I only gave you the chance. You’re a traitor, a liar.
“You’re wrong about me.”
Even now, years after I’m gone, you’re still pushing ponies away. Or was Applebloom my fault too? Did I trick you into—
“SHUT UP!” Scootaloo screamed at the top of her lungs, voice cracking in her dry throat, tears soaking into the heavy blanket.
Did I hit a nerve? The voice in her head laughed. You can shrug it off in front of your friends, but you can’t hide it from yourself, can you? Nopony knows how much you miss your friends, how much it hurts to be away from them, how much you wish you could say sorry and make the whole thing disappear.
Scootaloo pushed harder against her ears in a useless attempt at blocking out the voice. Of course, you can’t just walk up to her and apologize, can you? After all, the last thing she told you was that she never wanted to see you again.
“Please, just stop.”
The voice made a disgusted noise, and when it spoke, it was in her own voice. You’re pathetic Scootaloo, moping around in self loathing like this.
The door opened with a sudden bang, flooding the room with light. Scootaloo jerked away in surprise, blinded by the sudden light and her own tears. Hooves scurried around her, pushing and tugging her up and forcing her toward the door. Excited clicks and hisses came from all around her, adding to her confusion.
“Bring her,” a voice commanded nearby. A heartbeat later, she was swept forward through a bright hall and shoved past a pair of worn stone doors. She only had a moment to take in the room on the other side. The walls were made of worn stone blocks and the ceiling towered high above. She recognized it as an old castle deep in the Everfree Forest.
Before she could take in any more, she was shoved forward, falling onto her front legs. She picked her head up enough to see a pair of black hooves before her.
“Bow pony,” the voice said again in a sharp rasp. “Bow before the presence of her Royal Majesty, Queen Lirean.”
Scootaloo's gaze rose, following the long legs up to a black body, almost as large as Princess Luna. She was mostly black, with a pair of ragged insect wings, a teal-colored mane, and a crooked, twisting horn.
The changeling queen stared down at her with cruel blue eyes.
*****
Twilight Sparkle stared out the castle window, watching the sun set over Canterlot. Worry squirmed uncomfortably through her gut, an exhausting fear that grew with every hour. It had been four days since Scootaloo had gone missing, and nopony had any leads. At least none that they could act on.
Guilt wormed its way in with the fear as she remembered her last meeting with Scootaloo. The young pegasus had come see Twilight and Dash on their double date. She’d introduced Thistleroot as her own date before excusing herself to use the filly’s room. Since she hadn’t mentioned any plans before, Twilight had picked up on the clue and excused herself as well. Once alone in the bathroom, Scootaloo had given Twilight a bit of shocking news.
Twilight’s new coltfriend was the owner of the crusader’s mansion.
“It’s all my fault,” Twilight whispered to herself, eyes falling closed.
After Scootaloo had gone missing, Star Shine was of course the first suspect. On Celestia’s orders, his mansion and offices had been searched. They’d turned up exactly nothing, and he’d been released.
Rainbow Dash had taken it even worse than Twilight, of course. Dash had hardly eaten since Scootaloo’s disappearance, instead spending every free moment walking the streets of Canterlot with a photo.
Twilight turned away from the window and left the castle for the day. She made a quick stop to pick up the night’s dinner before making the short walk to her own house.
“Excuse me? Twilight?”
Twilight froze on her front steps, bag dropping from her mouth and spilling the food at her hooves. A dark blue unicorn with a silver mane stood on the street behind her. He was a few years older than her and wearing a handsome suit.
“What do you want, Star Shine?” Twilight finally managed to ask, venom creeping into her words, her wings flaring aggressively.
*****
The changeling queen stared down at Scootaloo with cruel blue eyes. “So this is the pony that led the great Chrysalis to ruin?” she asked in an odd resonant timbre.
A dozen changelings in a circle around them jeered and hissed, brandishing their horns and flaring their wings. Scootaloo tried to fall back from them all at once, sinking to her rump and tucking her hooves to her sides.
“Tell me, my children, what would you have me do?” the queen asked.
The hissing grew louder as one of the changelings rasped, “Kill her! Make her pay for the sisters we lost to the alicorn princess.”
Another hissed from behind her, “Imprison her in stone, as the night princess imprisoned our beloved queen.” Several changelings nodded fervently in agreement.
“Take her to the hive! Let us feed on her!”
The queen raised a hoof and her subjects fell silent. “Pony, you see now what my subjects wish for you. For years, we have been without leadership, without order, starving in our wastelands. And it is because of you that we have fallen further than ever before.”
“I—I didn’t—”
“Silence! I do not care to hear your excuses or reasons. The suggestions of my subjects are too tame, in my own opinion. For what you’ve done to our kind, I would deliver upon you the suffering of each individual changeling before I was satisfied.”
Scootaloo swallowed past a lump forming in her throat. Her wings quivered, ready to spring open in a fight or flight reaction.
“There is an alternative,” the queen continued. “Another way to repay your debt to us.”
“What is it?” Scootaloo whispered.
“You are close to Princess Celestia, are you not? You visit her often, have even been called upon to do favors for her?”
Scootaloo nodded slowly as the back of her neck began to prickle. The changeling queen seemed to be growing more imposing, as though a feverish light was gathering at the folds of her wings and along the curve of her horn.
“My changelings demand revenge,” the queen said. “They will be content to take it from you, but it is Princess Luna who struck the final blow against our beloved Chrysalis, and Cadence who injured many changelings when she expelled them from Canterlot. Work with us to deliver the princesses, and we will forgive you of your part.”
Scootaloo shook her head, edging further away from the queen. “You want me to betray them? I can’t!”
“Why not, you’ve done it once before,” Queen Lirean said flatly.
Scootaloo trembled all over, sucking in rapid breaths. She couldn’t betray the princesses again. Not after everything they’d done for her. But, if she didn’t agree, she could be killed. Or worse. Her cutie mark itched, as though reminding her of its presence. You’re a traitor, a liar.
The queen towered over her, face oddly lacking any depth. The light around her grew brighter still, giving her surroundings a flat appearance.
Scootaloo’s head fell to rest against her chest, tears streaming down her cheeks. She couldn’t betray them again, but she couldn’t say no either. You’re pathetic Scootaloo.
The light brightened further and all the shadows faded, giving the room a surreal feeling. The sight didn’t register with Scootaloo until a powerful voice spoke, reverberating from every angle at once. “That is enough.”
The light shifted, all of it rushing to a single point behind Scootaloo. Shadows stretched opposite of it, twitching unnaturally as the light condensed into a single, blinding figure. Scootaloo blinked back tears as she tried to make out the form. It dawned on her that it was no longer light, but a solid, pristine white coat, so luminescent that it was painful to look at.
Princess Celestia stood before them, head held high, pose regal, horn humming with power. Her eyes burned with the golden intensity of the sun as she looked down upon the changeling queen. Scootaloo could feel a tension in the air emanating from the princess.
With a cry of hatred, the changelings charged.