Scootaloo looked at her surroundings, she was in a comfortable field with cattails brushing against her legs as she wandered through the open space.
She knew she was dreaming, she had become lucid almost immediately. A strangely common incident since Princess Luna came to visit her to help with her plague of nightmares.
But now she had a new problem, something terrible.
She conjured up the image of a colt in her class, Rumble. He was a good colt, polite, well spoken, handsome by anyponies standards.
She stepped towards him, his eyes showed life even though he was not real. Her face was close to his, she felt nothing. Her lips were a hair's breadth away, she felt nothing. Her lips touched the fake colt's, she still felt nothing. She pulled away, the figure dissapearing into the wind.
This wasn't right, she should feel at least something, shouldn't she?
She shook her head, deciding to clear the matter once and for all.
An image suddenly appeared, a white unicorn filly with frizzy purplish-pink hair. It was one of Scootaloo's closest friends, Sweetie Belle.
She looked at the visage of her friend, she looked stunning. A cute half-smile cocked on her face and her mane flowing in the spring breeze whistling through the meadow.
She stepped forwards, a tingling sensation began in her gut at the realization of what she was about to do. She inched forwards, the sensation growing much stronger, almost unbearably so. She moved her face closer to her friend's, her breath coming out in short pants. She looked deep into the faux-fillies eyes, sparkling with imitation life, but the fact that it was a copy didn't matter right now. All that mattered was the moment.
Their lips were an infitesemal distance apart, she could almost feel them on her.
She shut her eyes, and pushed.
A tingling sensation enveloped her lips, spreading quickly down her body. It felt magical. Like what all of the adults said kissing a colt should feel like.
She leaned into the kiss, eyes still clamped shut. She let out a high-pitched moan of happiness.
Eventually she ran out of breath and, reluctantly, let her lips pull away from those of the figure before her.
She looked into the eyes of her friend, her facial expression had not changed, the cute half-smile still cocked adorably on her face. Scootaloo's lips twiched, she resisted the urge to let them pull into a grin.
Her eyes widened.
She had just kissed a filly!
She swiped her hoof through the illusion, dispelling it like a cloud of smoke.
She had liked kissing a filly!
Scootaloo sank to her haunches, tears welling up in her eyes.
She was a fillyfooler!
She sunk her head to her hooves, tears rolling down her cheeks and onto the grass below.
She was a freak
Luna trotted down her corridor. Doors flanking the velvet carpeted hallway, each one leading to the dream of one of her little ponies.
She smiled, it was good to be able to help her subjects, even in her sleep.
She looked up to one of the doors at random, Scootaloo Mellowfeather it read.
Luna smiled, remembering the filly she had helped conquer her nightmares and give a new big sister.
She decided that it would be beneficial to see how the filly was doing, making sure that she was okay.
Plus she had a soft spot for foals...
Luna grinned and stepped through the door, walking directly into a large meadow filled with cattails, bathed in sunshine.
She smiled, this filly certainly had an artistic imagination.
Luna wandered through the meadow for a while. Just taking in the scenery, only absentmindedly looking for the filly this marvelous dreamscape belonged to.
Luna's ears cocked as she heard something.
They swivelled round to where the noise was coming from.
It sounded like... sobbing?
Luna's eyes widened as she realized that Scootaloo was in distress, she accelerated up to a gallop and rushed towards the source of the crying.
Scootaloo raised her head as she heard hoofsteps, her cheeks still tear-streaked.
Great she thought. Now I can't even control my own lucid dream
She sank her head back into her hooves, not caring if anypony saw her like that.
Luna stepped into the clearing and looked at Scootaloo, her eyes brimming with sympathy. She slowly trotted over to the small orange filly. Lowering herself down onto her haunches a few metres from the grief-stricken filly.
"What do you want?" She asked, her voice raspy from crying. Luna didn't respond straight away, she just gazed into the poor filly's still-watery magenta eyes.
"I just want to help you, young one." She said quietly, a motherly smile on her face.
Scootaloo looked away, apparently in shame. "You can't help me... No one can..." Her head sunk back into her hooves again and she refused to look back at Luna.
The Princess' comforting smile wavered at that, she had always prided herself on helping with the smaller problems while her sister dealt with all of the politics and bill-signing. If the little orange filly had a problem so bad that supposedly the Princess of the night herself couldn't help with it then it must have been serious...
Nonsense Luna thought, doubting her self-confidence wasn't going to get her anywhere.
"You could at least tell me what is wrong, child. I might be able to help, you never know." Luna persisted, trying to get a response out of the angsting orange filly in front of her.
Scootaloo took her head out of her hooves to look at the Princess dead in the eye, no fear, but no cockiness either in those magenta orbs filled with despair.
"I'm a freak..." She said, as she popped out of existence.
Luna sighed as she found herself back in the corridor, standing in front of an empty space where the door to Scootaloo's dream had once stood.
Luna lowered her head in failure and walked onwards through the never ending hallway of dreams.
Scootaloo opened her eyes, the first grey rays of sunlight finding their way through the curtains and onto the clouds that made up the floor below.
She could hear Rainbow Dash making a commotion in the kitchen, probably preparing breakfast.
A little of the weight in Scootaloo's heart lifted as she remembered the day that Rainbow Dash had won custody of her.
She had come to pick Scootaloo up for a flying lesson when she had saw the filly's father hitting her and abusing her. Rainbow had broken down the door and tackled the drunk stallion to the floor, pinning him down and saying that if he ever did anything bad to Scootaloo again she would make sure it would be impossible for him to have any more children.
That night Scootaloo had slept over Dash's for the first time. In the morning Dash had told Scootalooo to go and hang out with her friends while she took care of some business. This continued for about a month. Scootaloo staying at Dash's every night. She insisted that Scootaloo couldn't go home.
One day Dash had come home with the stupidest, happiest grin anypony in Equestria had ever seen.
She had slammed a piece of paper on the table that said Dash now had custody of Scootaloo, her eyes had widened at the news. If that wasn't enough Dash then pulled out another piece of paper with the details of a restraining order put on Scootaloo's father from her, Dash, and the whole of Ponyville.
Scootaloo had looked up at the mare that had just done the nicest thing anypony had ever done for her, without expecting a reward in return and even willingly putting her recources into it, with a dumb expression. Struggling to comprehend what had just happened. Before slamming into her new guardian at almost mach speed and wrapping her in a rib-crushing hug.
"I love you so much Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo had exclaimed, not realizing what she had said until after she had said it.
Rainbow just giggled and tousled the filly's mane. "I love ya too, Scoots" she had said.
Scootaloo lay in bed, her memories being interrupted by an annoying ray of sunlight getting in her eyes.
She started to tear up, what would Dash think of her if she knew she was a freak?
The door to her room opened and Dash strutted in.
"Rise and shine lazyponies! Celestia's not gonna wait for us!" She yelled, before looking at the expression of despair on Scootaloo's face. Her eyes widened as she realized that Scootaloo was about to cry. She shot over to the bed and gave the filly a bone-crushing hug.
"It's okay..." She said. "Nothing can hurt you, it's fine..." Dash held Scootaloo out at arms length, looking into her eyes with a comforting smile.
Despite the tears rolling down Scootaloo's face she still managed to crack a weak smile.
"That's more like it!" Dash said, her grin growing happier. "Now, what's the matter?"
Scootaloo looked at her big sister, at the comforting smile on her face and the kindness in her eyes.
"I don't deserve your kindness..." Scootaloo muttered.
A curious look appeared on Dash's face. "What? Why not?"
Scootaloo's face screwed up as more tears started to roll down her face. "I'm just a fillyfooling freak!" She screamed, barging past Dash and out of her bedroom.
Dash's jaw dropped and her eyes widened as she heard Scootaloo's outburst. "Scoots!" She cried out in shock.
"No! Don't say anything! I don't deserve anything!" She yelled again as she leapt out of the door and started to plummet towards the ground. She straightened out and extended her wings, catching air easily and swooping worryingly close to the ground. She soared off into the sky, rapidly becoming smaller in front of Dash's eyes.
"Scoots..." She mumbled under her breath as tears started to pool in the corners of her eyes.