//------------------------------// // Exile // Story: I gave you my dreams // by MetricOnion //------------------------------// “Come on Scootaloo! Ya can’t stay in there forever!” called Applebloom from the other side of the door. Scootaloo lay on her bed facing her navy blue wall. She was on top of her sheets and her left ear rested on her pillow. The window was closed and the curtain was pulled to, shutting out the world and leaving her in darkness. “Scootaloo? Please answer us!” pleaded Sweetie Belle. She had a crack in her voice and sounded like she was going to cry any minute now. She knocked on the door again. Scootaloo didn’t move to open it. She didn’t do anything but perform the necessary functions for life and would only leave the room for a minute at a time, five times a day to eat, drink and use the toilet. While she was out she didn’t converse nor turn her head to listen to a voice. She just did what she wanted to do, and locked herself in her bedroom again. In her hooves was an almost wrecked Spitfire plushie that had the inner fabric sticking out of one of the legs. “Why are you ignorin’ us Scootaloo?” said Applebloom. “We are still friends right?” Scootaloo said nothing. “Please talk Scootaloo, you’re scarin’ me!” Nothing. “Let’s just go. It’s obvious that she’s not coming out.” Said Sweetie Belle. The two walked away from the door and down the stairs, their hoofsteps getting more and more muffled with every step they travelled. Scootaloo dropped her plushie and stood up. ‘Finally they’re gone!’ she thought to herself. She opened up her toy box and picked out a plastic bag that was at the bottom beneath a pile of pictures of her and Rainbow Dash. She stopped to pick one up. She remembered the scene like it was yesterday. She was sitting with Rainbow with a broken wrist. She had fallen off her scooter and landed hard on a rock. She was crying but Rainbow was calm, cool and collected. She was making her a bandage with a reel she had in a home first aid kit. She had been taken to hospital after that for a more permanent fix. Even so, it was a nice memory. Tears pricked in the corners of her eyes and her throat was beginning to hurt. A tear emerged and rolled down her face and onto the laminate picture, splashing and covering her ear. She threw it down and walked over to the door with the bag in hoof. She retrieved another padlock and hooked it onto the holder that was becoming overcrowded. She twisted the metal hook round and depressed it, changing the combination to 459 before closing it and walking back to her bed. Four locks now chained the door shut. Scootaloo picked up a slightly rotting apple from her bedside table that she hadn’t finished, and took a bite from the brown substance. It tasted horrible but she didn’t want to leave her room to get something else. *Meanwhile at the school* Cheerilee tapped her pencil on the desk in front of her. All of the kids had left so she was left to mark their homework in peace and quiet. It was maths work which was definitely not her forte but it was compulsory in the curriculum so she had to teach it. There were some blatantly hopeless attempts from those who did it the night before and some good tries. Applebloom, as usual, got a ‘B’, Sweetie Belle also got a ‘B’ most of the time but there were some rare occasions where she received an ‘A’ or ‘A+’ (A* in England). The trouble makers, Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara got their usual ‘C’s. When marking though, Cheerilee was worried about Scootaloo. She hadn’t come to school for a week and word was out that she was never coming back. She hadn’t received any word from her family since she disappeared. *Back to Scootaloo* Scootaloo was back to doing nothing. She had resorted to hyperventilation to try and knock herself out. She was successful on a few tries but sometimes she just burst into tears midway. When she was unconscious she had nothing to worry about. She couldn’t hear, see, feel, taste or smell anything. She was surrounded by silence. She was at her most peaceful in one of these phases but eventually the constant blackouts were causing some adverse health effects. She was waking up with no memory of what had just happened. She couldn’t remember what she was doing only fifteen minutes ago and her head seemed to be emptying itself. She also noticed that she needed to use the toilet more and more, causing her even more distress at having to leave her room. It was like she thought that there was something outside, just waiting for her to emerge. She was haunted by the memory of her two worst enemies, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. When she managed to sleep on one of those rare occasions, she would be trapped in a nightmare and a constant merry-go-round of bullying. She lay on her bed, the clock indicating the time to be half past midnight. She attempted to get some sleep, knowing that the nightmares would come. She had been practicing lucid dreaming in her loneliness. She shut her eyes and waited for something to happen. Sleep came surprisingly early for Scootaloo. She woke up, cold and shivering. She opened her eyes to see she was in an attic, her attic by the looks of things. ‘How did I get up here?’ she wondered. She was wedged between a box of Christmas decorations and a stack of posters from her early childhood. She picked one up from the top of the pile and opened it. She screamed as it depicted a picture of her being surrounded by pairs of eyes that floated in the air. She threw it to the floor but she didn’t know why it scared her so much. She walked out of the area she was in and sauntered to the ladder that folded out to allow access to the first floor. She unbolted it as usual with the thought of getting back to her bedroom at top priority in her mind. After the ladder had opened, she climbed down and onto the carpet. That was weird; she didn’t recognise the corridor she was in. She saw the ladder close behind her and looked around in confusion. She could have sworn that it was her attic. Her concentration was broken when she heard hoofsteps. She looked around for any way out, but all of the doors that led to the rooms had oddly disappeared. A shadow appeared on the wall at the top of the stairs. It was a stallion. He had somepony with him, a mare. They came closer and closer to the top of the stairs; Scootaloo was now panicking, and ran into the corner of the corridor, waiting for her inevitable discovery. Just as the figures should have rounded the corner, they didn’t. The shadows simply faded away into nothingness. Scootaloo suddenly felt the floor beneath her give way, and she looked down to see that she was falling. She screamed and flapped her wings as hard as she could but to no avail. She could see nothing but herself in the mysterious darkness. She stopped falling, wings still flapping, elevating her ever so slightly. She noticed, and fell to the floor with a thud. She recognised where she was, for she hadn’t moved at all. She was still in the same place, same white carpet, and same cream walls. She looked again, and this time the doors were there. Nopony was walking up the staircase anymore. She stood up and cautiously walked to the top. She peered around the corner and saw nothing out of order. Boots were lined up against the wall and a rack above held a few coats. She moved, step by step to the ground floor. Still nothing. But when she turned, she was surprised to see something gouged into the wall. The letters were threatening and imposing, and simply said ‘RUN’ Scootaloo turned tail, only to be stopped by an unbearable noise. It was a high pitched whistle that came from nowhere in particular. It stung her ears to listen and she knelt down, hooves trying their best to block it out. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” she bellowed as she shot up from her slumber. Her heart pounded and she fought to stop herself from crying. “Y-You OK squirt?” said a voice that Scootaloo had been trying to avoid. “WHAT?” she roared, turning towards the speaker. “I was just seeing if you were okay,” Rainbow Dash explained. “HOW DID YOU GET IN?” Rainbow Dash moved slightly to block the view of the crowbar that lay on the floor next to the open door. Scootaloo sighed and rested her head in her hooves. “What do you want?” “I want you out of here,” “Don’t bother. I’m not coming out,” “Scootaloo, you can’t just stay here for the rest of your life!” “Yes I can, just watch me!” “Scootaloo listen! Why won’t you come out?” “Because if I do then I’ll just get picked on again!” “Scootaloo,” “What?” “Do you think that I would ever intentionally let that happen to you?” “Well, no. But..!” “No buts! Please come out,” Scootaloo was crying onto her hooves as she was given the decision to leave her room or to stay. Well, Rainbow was quite a trusted friend, but how would she know if the bullying would in fact go away. She thought hard. After a minute, she made her decision. “No!”