//------------------------------// // Depths of Despair // Story: I'll Fly Higher // by Sky Blue Angel //------------------------------// Depths of Despair - Chapter 3 I'll Fly Higher Sky Blue Angel "Scootaloo, I'm quite sure your cutie mark's going to come up sooner or later," Twilight Sparkle flipped a page in her book. The library was dark, empty, and rather stuffy. The curtains were closed, and Spike was away. Twilight quickly illuminated the candles in the library and began to search through the books. Some were quite new, while others had yellowed pages and many torn corners. One of the books didn't even have a cover. "But how much longer is sooner?" Scootaloo put her hooves on the alicorn's book stand. "I... I can't wait anymore!" Twilight sighed, closing the book on the stand. She blew away the dust, and placed it back on the shelf where it belonged. She lifted an eyebrow, and removed the book to place it one spot over. She turned around to Scootaloo. "I'm sorry, I can't help you," Twilight trotted over to the horse head and examined it. She ran her hoof along a scratch in the face. "A cutie mark is something a pony needs to find on his or her own. You can't force a cutie mark to appear," "But Twilight!" The orange pegasus flapped her wings weakly, before bowing to the alicorn princess. "You're a princess! You've got to help me!" "Look, Scootaloo!" Twilight began to power her magic. "I'm not Fate! I can't change what you're destined to appear!" Twilight's magic was a bright ball of pure white energy. "I can try, but that doesn't change anything!" Scootaloo's eyes grew wide as a thin line of pure magic shot through her body and wrapped itself round her waist. From there, it branched off and began to weave itself around Scootaloo's legs, the magic's grip tightening every split second. The magic drifted down between Scootaloo's legs and wrapper around her tail, back legs, and flank. The magic slowly weaved up to Scootaloo's neck, where it wrapped tightly, nearly suffocating the young pony. The magic was slowly adapting the color of Scootaloo. The magic finished its path, slowly closing in on the struggling pony's face. Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes, and forced the last bit of magic away from her body. The magic tickled Scootaloo's eyelids before finally covering her eyes. "Scootaloo?" Twilight shook her head and looked at the exact spot where Scootaloo was a split second before. Only a burn mark scorched the spot in the library where the filly had been. "T-Twilight?" Scootaloo opened her eyes. "Twilight, where are you?" Scootaloo looked around the dark depths of the abyss she was sent to. The darker clouds shifted around Scootaloo, and the abyss itself had a dark feel to it. A slight wind ruffled the young pony. She stood up, and ruffled her wing feathers. She smiled as she felt the wind hit her face, her wings, her flank. "I feel empowered... But..." Scootaloo turned around in a circle. "Where am I?" Scootaloo trotted past the large mass of inky black clouds. The orange pegasus noticed a flash of white to her right, exactly where her blind spot should have been. She took a hopeful look at her flank. Still nothing. "Damn it, getting all happy that maybe something appeared on my flank. It's about time, Fate!" Scootaloo waved a hoof in the air. "It's about fucking time!" Scootaloo shivered as another gust of wind ripped through her. The wind was a lot rougher and colder than any of the other breezes in the dark cavern. Or, abyss, as some would call it. The flash of light appeared again. Scootaloo turned around to see a large cloud of black, inky smoke form into the shape of a unicorn. She let her jaw drop. The cloud was ever changing. One moment, it was a pegasus, strong and powerful, the next, it was a unicorn, old and wise. One second it was a colt, the other a mare. But most of the time, Scootaloo couldn't notice the subtle changes in the cloud. "Scootaloo!" The cloud boomed her name, making the pony shake in her skin. "Scootaloo! Howst dare you curse Fate!" The cloud moved forward and looked at the small, orange pegasus. "I-I didn't curse Fate!" Scootaloo swiped at the cloud, but only to hit flesh. "That's what they all say!" The cloud moved away from Scootaloo to come back to its original position. "You came to The Abyss to try and change thy fate!" The cloud laughed, and slowly began to diminish. "You doth not know what you hath challenged!" When the cloud was no bigger than Scootaloo, it emitted a pop and disappeared. "Ha! You're just a stupid cloud meant to scare me! I'm not scared of you!" Scootaloo waved her hoof at the cloud again. She sighed, for she knew that ranting at a cloud wasn't going to make anything any better. She might as well be dead. "Hey... Don't die..." A small, high-pitched voice came from behind Scootaloo. "Nopony wants you to die..." "How the hell would you know? You don't even know what I'm feeling!" Scootaloo shouted at the ground, her wings shaking feebly. The fuck? Why am I talking to myself... "You're not talking to yourself..." The voice came again. "You don't have to die, Scootaloo... There's someone who really cares!" Scootaloo turned around to look at a small pony. A pegasus. She didn't have a color. Her mane wasn't colored, nor was her body. Only her eyes glimmered white. She looked at Scootaloo and tipped her head to one side. "Ha! Now I'm going crazy!" Scootaloo picked up an Abyss rock and hit herself on the head. "Talking to ghosts!" Scootaloo took a few good beatings to the head with the rock before the ghost pony spoke "I'm not a ghost, Scootaloo," The pony walked over to the orange pegasus and gently took the rock out of her hoof. Scootaloo felt heat emit from the translucent pony. Is... She really a pony? "Well, I'm not exactly a pony..." The creature in front of her rubbed her front hoof. "I'm more of something you would call an alicorn. But that's not the proper term," The alicorn pony in front of Scootaloo shifted to one side to reveal her flank. "I'm something you wouldn't want in the universe," The alicorn filly lifted a wing and showed Scootaloo her blank flank. "Y-You're... Like me..." Scootaloo looked at her flank, and remembered all of the times she had tried to obtain her cutie mark. "Yes, I'm a lot like you, in ways you don't even know," The alicorn walked up to Scootaloo and patted her on the head. "We're almost twins, except you have something I don't." "W-What do you mean, I have something you don't?" Scootaloo tipped her head to one side. She was genuinely intrigued by the alicorn in front of her. She had thought that the species was nearing extinction, with the four princesses remaining. Scootaloo managed to look at the pony in front of her. "You have a family, I don't. You have a talent, I don't," The alicorn filly smiled. "You have a life to live, and I do not," Scootaloo looked at the alicorn, then wiped a tear from her face. "But... What about it? My family left me! My talent hasn't appeared for sixteen years! And so much for having a life," Scootaloo kicked a rock at the alicorn. "When others want you to die!" "Your mother doesn't want you to die," The alicorn smiled weakly. "You've got an amazing life in front of you, and you're going to live through it all," She put a hoof around Scootaloo's shoulders. "But why? Why was I chosen to come here?" Scootaloo watched another tear drip down her face and onto the dirt ground of the Abyss. "Because you believed that you could conquer anything. You have talent. You're going to be great, Scootaloo," The alicorn gave Scootaloo a squeeze, "Tell them they can't defeat what I say." "Why not? You're just a filly!" Scootaloo shook off the alicorn. "They can't conquer Fate!"