//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 - The Second Escape // Story: Pinksomnia: The Darkest Descent // by Wolokai //------------------------------// The wedding-party was a total success. Twilight and Quill took to the floor first, the traditional first dance of the Bride and Groom making the others give warm smiles and loud applause, with more and more ponies following in their stead, taking to the dance floor as well. Vinyl Scratch laid down two records on her turntable, flicking on her amps and letting the bass thump loudly. Celestia smiled, sitting up on the edge of the stage, watching over her little ponies as Luna sighed next to her, a warm smile on her face as well. Luna looked towards her sister, her eyes twinkling "Well Tia', I say this went over well!" Celestia nodded, a motherly grin spreading across her face as she watched Twilight and Quill sharing a light kiss and a small sip of champagne. She sighed, speaking to the Luna "I never thought...oh...she's grown up so much..." Luna blinked in surprise, looking up at her sister and whispering "Tia'...are you...crying?!" Celestia sniffed and rubbed her eyes with her hoof, muttering "N...no!" Luna sighed, shaking her head and looking out over the dancing crowd, lightly patting Celestia's back. ~~~ Everyone cheered as Twilight and Quill, with carefully placed hooves, slid the large knife down the wonderfully decorated wedding cake, the married couple each giving each other and slice and looking into one another's eyes. Speeches were made of course, with Quill giving his story of how he first came to Ponyville, the day that Fluttershy was released from Prison, and proceeded to his own death at the hands of The Entity, and finally to his declaration of love and intentions of marriage to Twilight, who accepted with a squealing "Yes yes yes yes yes!", hopping around the library with glee. It wasn't until the sound of shattering glass and a mare's outburst of pain that the bright and happy mood of the wedding was crushed. Everypony's heads turned to see Sweetie Belle rushing over to Scootaloo, a thick cloth in her teeth. A broken champagne glass lay at Scootaloo's hooves, her front right hoof bleeding pretty badly, a few shards of glass stuck in her coat. Applejack trotted over quickly, shouting "Holy horsefeathers, Scootaloo, you okay?!" Scootaloo didn't respond, simply staring down at her hoof in horror, her pupils shrinking and her breath coming out in ragged heaves. Sweetie Belle gently pulled the shards out of her hoof gently, wrapping the cloth around it and looking at Scootaloo with a frightened expression. Applejack approached Scootaloo slowly, her breath getting to a hyperventilating point. Applejack gently held out a hoof out to Scootaloo and whispered "Scootaloo...?" "Scootaloo?" Scootaloo looked up, Pinkie Pie looking down at her and smiling. Her mane done up in pigtails and the color of blood, her coat green as the apples that Applejack liked to pick sometimes. Scootaloo looked down at her cyan colored hoof, bleeding from one of the drinking glasses she accidentally stepped on. She looked up again, tears in her eyes and whimpering "M...momma!" Pinkie Pie gently trotted over, holding Scootaloo's hoof up in her own and gently pulling the shards out of her hoof. Scootaloo sat on her haunches and winced a little, watching as her mother wrapped a cloth up her hoof and smiling, giving her a tiny pat on her head. Scootaloo smiled for a moment but it slowly started to fade...turning into a look of horror. Pinkie's eyes began to drip blood, like tears, the corner of her mouth dripping as well. Scootaloo started to move back slowly, hyperventilating as the walls began to warp, the ceiling cracking and splintering. Snow started to flow through windows that began to smash and fall from their wooden frames, a heavy wind blasting through and throwing about many of the appliances surrounding them. The walls fell outwards, the ceiling being lifted and tossed away like a ball of paper. Scootaloo looked towards Pinkie, a dark shadow hovering over her and morphing into the shape of a sphere. The ORB!, it was there! Scootaloo gasped as the snow around them turned a deadly red, the blizzard becoming a haze of bloody liquid. Behind Pinkie Pie stood a large statue of a pony wearing some sort of winter cap and a flag. The flag had a symbol of a hammer and sickle, and was covered with the color of blood. She heard a sharp unsheathing of a blade and looked back towards Pinkie, who now had a knife in her mouth. Her head cocked to the side as she smiled widely, the blade tucked tightly between her heavily gritted teeth. The same voice that terrorized her in Ponyville terrorized her now as it whispered "Sssscoootalooooo... Come home Ssssscoootaloooo!!!! COME!!!!! HOME!!!!" Pinkie lunged with a savage growl, swinging the knife downwards towards her throat. ~~~ Scootaloo screamed in utter terror as Applejack's hoof gently poked her, her own hoof whipping about and smacking Applejack right in the face out of reflex. Applejack staggered back out of surprise, a hoof up to her own cheek as she shouted "What in tarnation!?" Twilight gasped as Quill blinked in surprise, everypony staring dumbstruck at Scootaloo. The orange and purple mare started to hyperventilate, looking about quickly and shivering. She felt surrounded, claustrophobic. Sweetie Belle gently approached her, whispering "S...Scootaloo? What's wrong? Are you o-EEEE!!!" She jumped back as Scootaloo took a sharp piece of glass up in her teeth and slashed at Sweetie Belle, backing away herself and screaming through bared teeth "GET BACK!!!! GET THE BUCK BACK!!!!" She swung the glass around her, making several jump back and clear a path for her as she backed up through the crowd. Her pupils were contracted heavily as Celestia and Luna stared with utter shock. Scootaloo turned, swinging her head with the glass slashing at the air, making everypony near the entrance to move away. Scootaloo took her chance and bolted through, crashing through the double doors as Sweetie Belle shouted after her "Scootaloo!!! WAIT!" A rumbling noise of muttering wafted up through the rotunda, everypony whispering and trying to understand what they had just seen. The girls rushed quickly over to the head table where Twilight sat, each of them sharing the same confused face. Twilight was the first to speak "I...I don't understand! Why did she...what just happened?!" Rarity sighed and shook her head, muttering "I don't know...oh Twilight I'm sorry...the others and I felt that Scootaloo would be up to this today...she's been feeling downright awful the past week...we didn't want to bother you or Quill with it because of the wedding and-" Twilight cut her off with a wave of her hoof and speaking with a tinge of worry in her voice "Forget the wedding, Scootaloo's in trouble, and I want to know why! I've never known her to just...break down like that!" Fluttershy felt tears brimming in her eyes as she whimpered "She...she's been having nightmares for the past week...about Pinkie Pie...I didn't think...I didn't know it'd get this bad...I'm sorry!" Quill sighed and shook his head, gently putting a hoof on Fluttershy's head and whispering with a comforting tone "Now now Fluttershy...it's alright. Scootaloo's our friend...we're worried about her. There's no need to be sorry about anything. Wedding or not, you all SHOULD have bothered us...nothing we can do about it now..." Applejack sighed and looked around, her eyes narrowing as she looked around again, speaking to the others as she looked about "Um...girls? Where the hay is Rainbow?" ~~~ Rainbow Dash had followed her, there was no way she was just going to let her go after something like that. She sat on her haunches outside Fluttershy's cottage, wondering what she should do. Scootaloo had looked up to her growing up, before the whole Trottington thing with Pinkie Pie. She felt awful...guilty mostly, about not being there for the little filly when she was truly Rainbow Dash's number one fan. She sighed, slipping off her Gala dress and setting it over Fluttershy's mailbox, trotting up to the door and putting a hoof up to it to knock. As he hoof pressed against the door it creaked open slowly, darkness answering the door. It was eerily dark inside the cottage as Rainbow Dash slowly walked inside, a lone lantern sitting on the table with a light flickering inside of it, giving the room a soft glow. She walked fully inside and squeaked with fright as the door slammed shut behind her, a gust of wind blowing about outside the house. Rainbow sighed, looking about and calling out "Hey, Scootaloo! Are you here? It's Rainbow Dash! You don't have to be afraid or upset, you didn't do anything wrong!" She heard a light thud coming from upstairs and looked up, hearing something moving. She looked towards the stairs and trotted over, looking upwards at the blackness that waited at the top. She gulped, her heartbeat making itself heard as it thumped loudly in her chest. She started the slow ascension up the stairs. A few steps creaked under her hooves...and for some reason, Rainbow couldn't shake the suffocating feeling of terror that was winding it's way up through her insides and hugging her heart in an icy embrace. She reached the top of the stairs, looking to the left, seeing nothing. She looked to the right and saw a soft glow coming from the room at the end of the hall. She trotted over, gently placing a hoof on it and opening the door, whispering "Scoota-BUCK!!!" Something hit her square in the face and she flew backwards, letting out a shout of pain and holding her nose, which started to bleed a little. Her eyes were watering and she tried to blink away the blurriness in her vision. She gasped as she heard Scootaloo's voice hiss down the hall "Why are you here Rainbow DASH!!?" She spat her name with such venom it made Rainbow cringe, wiping at her eyes and blinking, adjusting her vision and looking up at Scootaloo with fright. Scootaloo looked down on her with disgust, her eyes following Rainbow's as she got up sluggishly, shouting "What the hay is wrong with you!? What was THAT for!?" Scootaloo scoffed and shook her head at Rainbow, muttering darkly "Seriously...you're going to ask what's wrong with me?! What about YOU!? Why do you even care, you didn't care before, you didn't care before Pinkie Pie! Oh, what, Pinkie Pie adopts me and shows me true kindness and compassion, and now everypony loves Scootaloo? You sick, disgusting BITCH!" Rainbow Dash looked at her in shock. This wasn't like Scootaloo at all! She shouted once again "Hey! I came here to make sure you were ok! You flipped out and ran from the town square like a ghost was after you, you nearly CUT Sweetie Belle!!!" Scootaloo walked forward briskly, shouting so loudly that it made Rainbow back up to keep the distance even "OH, What?! So Scootaloo goes crazy and NOW you're concerned!? What Rainbow, what do you think about all this huh?! Think I'm crazy? THINK I'M losing it?! Maybe I am! But do you want to know what's more crazy? The fact that you can dream about your stupid, bucking mare Applejack, and Twilight can have that shitbird Quill, and all of you can be happy...all of you can just FORGET Pinkie Pie so EASILY!" Rainbow Dash shook her head rapidly, backing up as Scootaloo continued to bear down on her, squeaking "S...Scootaloo no! None of us have forgotten about Pinkie Pie! She sacrificed herself so all of us could li-" Scootaloo raised a hoof, punching Rainbow in the side of her face. Rainbow Dash fell backwards on her haunches, tears streaming down her face and whimpering "o...ow!!!" Scootaloo stood over her, shouting "SACRIFICE!? You STUPID, IDIOT, MARE! That's it!? You're just going to give up on Pinkie?! I KNOW she's still alive! I can't SLEEP, I can't EAT, I can't do anything except swim in my own dark minded visions of blood and madness! There's no body!!! No PROOF!!!! She's calling to me in Stalliongrad, she's SHOWING me! She's waiting for me!!!" Rainbow Dash was at a loss for words. Scootaloo...she's lost her mind! There's no way she was the same Scootaloo, there's no way! Rainbow weakly raised a hoof and squeaked "Scootaloo, there's...there's no way she could have survived!!! She s...stabbed herself so many times!!! SheeeaAAAARRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" Rainbow Dash screamed as Scootaloo charged her, hitting her square in the stomach with her bowed head, like a bull. Rainbow flew back and off the top of the stairs, rolling down each step and crying out, her hooves flailing about. She finally reached the bottom step, rolling into a dresser with a loud 'BANG!', the piece of furniture swaying dangerously before falling forward on top of Rainbow. Screams were heard as Scootaloo slowly descended the stairs, stepping on top of the dresser as Rainbow cried "Scootaloo!!! WHY!!! WHYYY!!" She was sobbing, a cyan hoof reaching out, shaking from under the dresser. Scootaloo grimaced and jumped up and down on the dresser, each thud of her hooves bringing a fresh shout and cry of pain and sobbing from the Rainbow Mare. After about five jumps she hopped off, getting on her belly and looking underneath the dresser. Rainbow Dash had tears spilling from her eyes, a gash on her forehead and her hoof outstretched towards her. Rainbow continued to sob and weakly cry out "Why!!! Scoot....Scootaloo, why!?" Scootaloo looked at her with such hate and anger that for a moment she could have sworn steam was coming from her snout with each ragged breath. She hissed to Rainbow Dash, making her wide-eyed as she spoke "Because I don't give up on anypony...unlike you" She stood, walking over to the lantern on the table. Saddlebags waited patiently on the couch for her, and were picked up by her, settling on her back with a few minor adjustments. She heard Rainbow Dash cry out to her, the dresser creaking a little from shifting weight. Scootaloo looked towards the lantern and shouted so Rainbow could hear "What's wrong Rainbow? Are you afraid? Are you upset? Funny...all that noise coming from the bravest mare I know...or knew. How does it feel? How does it feel to be left for dead, huh? You know I'm not going to help you. I want you to sit there, and feel like Pinkie, feel like she's feeling right now, abandoned, hurt, and broken. The only difference is...I'm going to save her...I'm not going to save you." Scootaloo turned and bucked the lantern with all her might, the metal tube sailing over and crashing against the wall, raining liquid fire and oil onto one of Fluttershy's bookcases. She trotted over to a screaming Rainbow Dash who heard the flames starting to spread, getting on her belly and whispering "Fear...is a basic, pony emotion...what frightens you more Rainbow? The evil that you know...or the evil that you don't know...?" She got up and bucked the door open, bucking it shut behind her as she walked away from the burning cottage, and the frantic cries of help from Rainbow Dash. She had a direction, she had a purpose, and now...she'd have her escape. She couldn't be forgiven...not now. Rainbow Dash's blood was on her hooves. She thought about Pinkie...with the blood of Trottington on her hooves...she now understood, finally at last. She was walking her mother's footsteps...her mother was trying to make her understand! She was escaping...just like her mother did...and she'd find her salvation in the city of the north, the city of snow, the city her mother waited in: Stalliongrad.