Rainbow Dash smashed through the front doors of the weather factory like a wrecking ball, her eyes steeled with determination. Everything around her was a blur, but somehow she could still put it all together. Police ponies, yellow tape, and factory workers were nothing to her as she crashed through another set of double doors and flew down a hallway. Somewhere behind her, several ponies shouted something about clearance, but she didn’t slow down. Let them try to stop her.
Coming to a storage room, she swung the door open and made her way across the cloudy floor. The room was completely empty, an unusual sight, but it made her path easier. Across the way, she found herself before a door marked with a ball of steam. Without a moment’s hesitation, she threw it open.
That’s where the courage in her eyes died.
On the other side of the room, Scootaloo was leaned up against the wall, her head hanging low. Her ponytail was drooped over her shoulder, the tip stained in blood. A thick, jagged piece of metal was stuck through her chest, carving a diagonal line from her left shoulder to her right hip. Dried blood covered her torso and front legs, and what parts of Scootaloo weren’t bloodstained were a pale shade of their former orange. Even worse, the tips of her front legs were scarred by a hundred tiny cuts from where she’d struggled to pull the metal out of her. In front of it all, yellow lines of tape were criss-crossed, like some kind of barrier to keep the horror contained.
As Rainbow Dash drew closer, she became aware of the stench, a pungent, nauseating smell that permeating everything everywhere. Breathing through her mouth did little to help, and as Rainbow Dash opened it to inhale she found herself screaming.
“Scootaloo! Scootaloo, can you hear me? You gotta get up, kid!” She choked out the last few words as the foul odor of death overtook her. Rainbow Dash felt her stomach turning, but there was no time for that now. She flew across the room in a second, tearing through the rubbery yellow tape like it was tissue paper. “Hey, hey, this isn’t the end, okay? Up and at ‘em, squirt, let’s go!”
When she got no response, Rainbow Dash screamed louder. “Hey! Wake up Scoot, don’t you go to sleep on me!” She shook Scootaloo’s body like a ragdoll, tears welling up in her eyes. Breathing the stench was agonizing, but she couldn’t leave. Stepping back, Rainbow Dash tried to grab the massive chunk of rusted metal from any angle that would give her leverage. “C’mon, dammit, come on!” She tugged and pulled and wrestled with it, but the aluminum wouldn’t move an inch.
Just then, two ponies came in the door behind her. “Miss, you can’t be in here! There’s an ongoing investigation, and you’re contaminating the–”
“Don’t just stand there you idiots, help me with this friggin’ thing!” Rainbow Dash screamed as she gave the shard another yank. We’ve got to get her to a hospital!”
That’s when she heard it. “R-Rainbow...”
Her head spun around in an instant. “Scootaloo! I’m here Scoot, we’re gonna get you to a hospital!” Now she cried tears of joy. There was still time to fix this, still time to save her.
“Help me, Rainbow D-D-Dash... H-Help...”
“Just sit tight kid, we’re gonna get this thing out!” She turned around to the two pegasi in the doorway. “Don’t just stand there gawking, you stupid mules! Help me with her!”
Something grabbed her neck, and suddenly she couldn’t breath. Turning back to Scootaloo, she saw the pale, bloodstained filly grabbing her windpipe with both hooves.
“Sc-Scootaloo! Ah... What–”
“Help me, Rainbow Dash,” Scootaloo pleaded softly. “Please, help me.” Eyes still shut, she stood up and tore the metal shard from her chest with one hoof, leaving a hole in the wall behind her where the shard had pinned itself in. The dried blood on her body cracked in several places, only to be replaced by fresh blood that splattered out of the gaping wound, and into Rainbow Dash’s eyes.
“Nnngh...! I-I-I can’t–”
With one swift motion, she took Rainbow Dash’s neck in one hoof and slammed her against the wall, holding her there a few inches off the ground. “Please Rainbow Dash, help me,” Scootaloo cried out once more, her eyes still closed.
Rainbow Dash had both her front legs around Scootaloo’s grip, but she couldn’t break free. Her wings were pushed up against the wall, unable to move an inch. Her lungs burned, and every heartbeat was a hammer blow to the skull. Squinting through the sting of blood in her vision, she saw the ponies in the doorway had vanished. She tried to speak, to gasp, to do anything, but Rainbow Dash could only glimpse through burning eyes as Scootaloo raised the metal shard in her free foreleg and lined it up with Rainbow Dash’s heart.
“Help me, Rainbow Dash...” she whispered. She pulled the fragment back, eyes closed, and swung it forward–
“Gaaaahhh!”
Rainbow Dash shot up in her bed with a scream.
Gasping for air, she looked down at her chest and rubbed a hoof over it. Her neck was sore, her eyes hurt to open and her nostrils still burned, but there was no actual hole in her heart.
This was the third night in a row she had been plagued by the same nightmare. Was it the third time? Was she even sleeping at night? If it had been three days, then she ought to be hungry, but her stomach was silent. With a groan, Rainbow Dash flipped over and pulled the sheets over her head. She lay like that for nearly a minute, until her mind wandered to what happened before she’d fallen asleep.
Scootaloo had been here. Here, in this very room, in her house. At first she had blamed Rainbow Dash for what had happened, attacked her, screamed at her, until Rainbow Dash found herself trapped in that factory with a murderous corpse. As soon as she’d woken up, Scootaloo was still here. That time Rainbow Dash was positive it was still a nightmare, and maybe it was. Maybe she was still in the nightmare, and Scootaloo’s phantom would attack her in her bed any second. But as the minutes ticked by, and nothing happened, Rainbow Dash finally convinced herself that she was awake.
Then she realized something. If she was awake now, what if she was awake when Scootaloo was in her bedroom, too?
“She was here,” Rainbow Dash said out loud. “She was here, and I wasn’t dreaming.”
She sat up in bed again, staring at the wall. Scootaloo had been here, talked to her, and she hadn’t been sleeping. Something Scootaloo said resonated in her mind.
If I’m dead, how am I here?
It just doesn’t make any sense, Rainbow Dash.
Her eyes squinted, and then shot open again.
“Twilight!” In a second, Rainbow Dash threw her sheets aside and leapt out of bed onto all fours. Then she was flying down the stairs, out the door, and north towards Canterlot.
One look at the sun told Rainbow Dash it was well past midday. Her wings were stiff, her limbs ached, and her hooves stung as the cuts from when she’d punched through the window were bitten at by the wind, but all her focus was on the mountain in the distance.
“Don’t worry Scootaloo,” she whispered into the air. “I’m gonna get you back.”
“She was what?”
She had expected Twilight to be skeptical. “I’m telling you Twilight, she was right there in front of me,” Rainbow Dash said. “She was just as much with me then as you’re with me now.”
“Rainbow Dash, you look exhausted,” Twilight replied. “I know how hard this is, but I think your mind was playing tricks on you.” She walked over to the tower’s giant window and pulled a string, shutting the blinds. “There, isn’t that better? I have a bed up here, why don’t you lay down for a few hours? It doesn’t do a grieving mind any good to not get sleep.”
Rainbow Dash’s face twisted up. “I’ve been in bed since the funeral. I don’t need more than three days of sleep to keep from going crazy.”
“Three days? Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo was buried over a week–”
“No time to measure calendars, Twilight! She’s still out there somewhere, trying to contact me somehow.” She grabbed her friend with both hooves and shook her. “You’ve gotta know some way to get her back!”
Twilight pushed herself away, wobbling. “Nnngh... Rainbow, please.”
Rainbow Dash shuddered at that.
“Look, losing somepony close to you is never easy.”
“We weren’t close anymore,” Rainbow Dash muttered.
“A few bitter moments doesn’t erase a lifetime of friendship,” Twilight said. “Scootaloo adored you, more than any pony she ever met.” She wrapped a foreleg around Rainbow’s shoulder. “But she’s gone now, Rainbow Dash. I know that’s not an easy thing to accept, but we can’t bring her back, no matter how much we wish we could.”
Rainbow Dash shoved her away, suddenly fuming. What didn't Twilight understand? “Then how do you explain her talking to me, huh? I know the difference between dreaming and not dreaming!”
“Rainbow Dash–”
“What, does the spell require some kind of sacrifice? A host body? Tell me!”
“There is no spell, Rainbow Dash.”
“Stop lying to me!” she screamed. “Scootaloo’s spirit is still here, and you’re gonna help me fix this!”
Twilight took a step forward. “You’re not well, Rainbow Dash. Let me help you. Help me understand what you’re going through.”
“I don’t need help, haven’t you been listening? Scootaloo’s the one who needs your help!”
“Rainbow Dash, please, help–”
“Don’t say that!” Rainbow Dash shrieked so loud her own ears hurt. Twilight stumbled back, and Rainbow Dash flew to the door, tears in her eyes.
“I’m gonna bring her back here, Twilight! And you’re gonna help me save her!” Before her friend could speak, Rainbow Dash was in the sky.