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// Prologue 
// Story: Falling Skies 
// by smileyfacer 
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Happiness is defined as many things. Some say that happiness is not something you could achieve with money or fame, and that it is way beyond materialistic things. Ponies that rise at the crack of dawn and return to their homes at the beginning of night, with their muzzles buried in advanced books, with hooves full of tending to critters of all kinds, magically sowing the latest trend, happily hosting a party every day, or spending countless hours trying to fly to perfection, are happy. This is their happiness; this is how they intend to live their lives until it ends. Even if it means having achy muscles, fried brains or bleeding hooves because of a misplaced needle, happiness follows suit. 

Furthermore, happiness seem to be a state of mind, rather a state of existence. If one wanted happiness, it seemed only a thought away, by reaching peace with your inner demons and finishing achievements of your liking. But inner demons are not something anypony can see, only surely feel, like doubt, self-loathing and others. Through the love of friends and family, the demons would go away, forever under the strict control of your mind. Many wise ponies of Equestria have claimed that friends, achieving happiness through doing your passions and family are essential to a pony’s happiness. But, what if one didn’t have these friends, cannot complete the passion you so wish; therefore being under the wicked control of demons? 

Those demons control ponies with glee. Determined to make them as miserable as can be, ponies crack under the pressure by themselves, but the demons force them to wear a mask. It cleverly hides the true turmoil that reigns within, ensuring that the pony feels as alone as possible. This mask  can only the best of friends destroy, through the light they bring into the life of the controlled. The mask begins to crack, and the demons flee in fear for their revelation. Once a crack in the mask is made, it takes patience and unconditional love from friends to fully destroy the mask, but happiness shall follow. 

For a pony that had been through a lot of misery, and definitely inner demons, Scootaloo had at first found the feeling of happiness a strange one. She had rarely ever had this constant urge to smile, butterflies in her stomach and the feeling of her heart soaring every time she went to her home in the sky. It was strange indeed, but once she understood through patient learning from friends Applebloom and Sweetie Belle and adoration from her newly found sister, Rainbow Dash, happiness was nothing less than what Scootaloo deserved.

Scootaloo had finally found happiness. Her demons were gone and the mask had long since been destroyed, thrown into the dark patches of her past. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the home and family she had found in Rainbow Dash, her great friends in the Cutie Mark Crusaders, or the fact that every single school day, she could fly. There was a time at the orphanage, where Scootaloo was certain that she would be cursed with eternal inability to fly. She was certain, that there would never be a ‘Scootaloo the Wonderbolt’,’Scootaloo, leader of the Wonderbolts’, only ‘Scootaloo the chicken’. 

But she had proved them wrong. Scootaloo, the filly that couldn’t fly, had proved every single pony in Ponyville wrong. She  could fly, and she would fly till the day her wings broke. She had worked countless hours after school, albeit happily so, to learn how to fly. Ofcourse, Scootaloo knew Rainbow Dash had no problem with flying her to and fro the home in the sky, and the dull ground, but to the filly, it was embarassing. Rainbow was a tough trainer, and at times, Scootaloo had wanted to quit.

Be 'Scootaloo the chicken' forever.

Yet whenever Scootaloo asked Rainbow Dash to let her go to bed, when the hours of the day had long sinced passed, and they had worked into the ones of the night, she had gotten a strict no. That was the first time that Scootaloo had felt the slightest of anger towards Rainbow Dash. Why did it matter to her if she was Scootaloo the chicken? 

But after they had had their first midnight flight together, on a school night, of course, the anger Scootaloo had felt, was gone. As they both soared through the sky, at a comfortable pace for Scootaloo, the purple filly realized something that made her smile to this day; Rainbow Dash loved her. 

Despite how much the filly and mare could annoy and shout at each other, due to the stubbornness they both shared, all of the things Rainbow Dash did, was out of love. And Scootaloo couldn't quite thank her enough. 

When Scootaloo woke up in the mornings, they never seemed quite as hard, because she had the ability to soar and rule the sky as her own. When Scootaloo first flew to school, her wings strong and muscular, all of the other schoolponies had cheered and given her applause. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had not been near as thrilled, of course, but a simple proud stare given to either fillies, were sufficient enough for the three friends. Flying to school always caused Scootaloo’s heart to swell with joy and pride, and every time she either gracefully or recklessly landed before the school, the feeling merely grew, nor ended. 

The pegasus wished it never would. The feeling of pride when she conquered the skies every day, and the happiness that made her heart burst when she saw her friends, was one that she hoped would last forever.

But happiness is often short, and it rarely takes much for demons to place a mask upon your face. Happiness is fickle and fragile, and before you know it, the ponies who deserve it the most, have it brutally torn away from them. 

Nonetheless, it is said, that when happiness is gone, darkness reigns within ponies, that the heart comes out stronger than before, and a hero in their own sense, is born. It is always darkest before the dawn.