Ash and smoulder.
Scootaloo looked into the darkness and tried to spot something. But she was unable to see even the shape of her own bed.
“Mum?”
Her voice sounded now only a little bit raspy, though she was on the mend. The filly yawned and stretched herself. Nopony answered and she rose finally. Her hooves stood uncertain on the clouds and she couldn't see pass the darkness, so she was unsure is he was dreaming any more.
“Mum?”
Scootaloo tried to be louder, but her throat was dry, she just coughed. Hesitantly she groped forwards and ran against and through an relenting wall. She passed through clouds and saw nothing else then other darkness. She spotted around and rubbed her running nostrils. The sootiness was quite different to her dream, grey twilight was shining ahead and she could spot coarse contours. The filly saw floating pieces in the darkness and as she breathed in she felt the bitter taste on her tongue. She coughed again and spat out a black slime lump. She panted and stumbled blind forwards. Then she bumped into an other Pony.
“What are you doing here, little one?”
The voice sounded muffled, blocked from a scarf and even upset. A mare without any doubt. Scootaloo was seize with two hooves and multiple blasts cleared the surroundings. A pegasusmare with an indigo coat appeared, held her firm and hovered on place. Her two coloured mane, fuchsia in the base and darkened like cerise in the tip, was a total mess and dusted with grey powder. She examined the filly, her eyes was covered with an old protection goggles and shared the same colour of her mane, a little bit darker, but looked similar at all. Her wings held the wind straight and tried to blow away the finely ashes out of her sight.
“You're Curryfeather's foal, right? Who are your mother?”
The mare held Scootaloo only with one hoof now and pulled the scarf down. The muffling voice changed and sounded more gentle. So the voice remembered Scootaloo to a question:
“Are you alright, little one?”
She had been in the Curryparadise, as she was running away from all the glances.
She shook away the memory and spotted around.
“I don't know. She wasn't home and...”
Her voice picked up some pace and she sensed the fear, who had sneaked upon unseen. The coat of the pegasi bristled shortly and she shook it away.
“Stay calm, little one.
She will be okay, right?”
This sort of encouragement didn't help Scootaloos at all. It sounded to stressed to be positive and not convincing at all. The drop of sweet gliding down her neck didn't help, too. Finally the nervous expression in her eyes was the coffin nail in Scootaloos fears.
“I. Have to find her.”
She tried to wrest herself free, but the older mare took her into both hooves and held her.
“You'll fly with me now.”
Scootaloo interrupted her with a desperate cry,
“I am not able to.”
She had reached her voice range with this cry and coughed. She forced air into her hurting throat with many gasps and bridled at the holding hooves.
“Scootaloo? Are you out there?”
This voice was, what she wanted to hear. Mum! Through the thick black walls whirled a wind blast and her mum flew together with a loud cry at her. Her hooves put her and snuggled her relieved against her coat.
“I'm glad you're alright. Thanks Rainbowshine.”
Curryfeather smiled to the weatherpony and held Scootaloo tight. What just happened here? She had left for ten minutes. Since the mare in moon vanished, strange things happened in Equestria.
“What happens here, Rainbowshine? What kind of clouds are this?”
The weatherpony shook her head and put the scarf back around her mouth.
“I don't know, Curryfeather. But this I know certainly:
You and your foal have to flee and seek shelter below."
She sought for Scootaloo, smiled hesitantly with concern in this smile and left of. She fought against the dark clouds and vanished shortly in them. Curryfeather pulled Scootaloo back to their home, sat her at the table and packed her saddleback as fast as she can.
“We will fly to aunt Sunny and wait there.”
Scootaloo nodded weakly and coughed again. Her mum stopped and put the saddlebacks on. Then she gathered Scootaloos pillow from her room.
“Keep the cloud on your mouth, Scootaloo. It will keep the ashes out of your breath.”
The following flight wasn't much pleasanter then the escape from Nightmare Moon. Pegasi filled the air, foals barely fledged, elderlies rarely certain in the sky and between them grown ups, holding everything together. The black smoke were breaking in from one direction to Cloudsdale and were fighting back from a few weatherponies, but more and more broke in. The sun disappeared over the darkness. Ashes gushed under the dark sky and dusted the pegasi greyish. The cloud protected Scootaloo from breathing in the dust, yet her mum hadn't have this sort of protection. She had tied her pinafore on her nostrils and was trying to clear her path with wind strokes, but the turbulences from the other pegasi made it impossible. The fear in their glances and the fearfully questions remembered her back through the eternal night and Curryfeather looked back to her filly on her back. Scootaloo clutched at her warm pillow, inhaled deeply and pressed herself into mums mane. What just happened? Was this a strange dream? Why didn't she just awake? She felt, that her mum turned over and raised her head. The pack of flying pegasi didn't decrease but frayed a little out in different directions. Scootaloo looked down and saw nopony there. Apple trees and fields flew under them.
“Mum, we should...”
Her voice sounded so silently, that she simply disappeared under the louder stammering of the other pegasi. She laid her fore hoof on mums head and looked down. Curryfeather followed her view and nodded. She tightened her wings and rushed to the ground. Freed from the mass, all fell silent and the winds around them died away. Curryfeather looked back to the sky and shook her head very surprised. She landed softly on a path besides a crop field and helped her filly down of her back.
“Thanks, Scootaloo. I've thought, we have to..”
She interrupted herself and smiled. Yes this smile was real and sparkled in her eyes, too. It merged further into laughter.
“Fly the whole way?”
This Scootaloo was able to caw, before the laughter passed onto her and she produced a mix between laughs and coughs. Not for long sure and she began to pant again and took deep breaths. Her mum put down the pinafore, sniffled and nodded to her daughter.
“I'm not sure, where we are. But this path leads to Ponyville, I hope. Maybe it is behind this hills.”
She trotted on and led the filly slowly into the direction the path was rising. Actually the path didn't lead directly into Ponyville. On the right hoof raised a dark forest and the thicket was so tight, that Curryfeather stayed away and went with a curve to a bridge over a river. Out off the apple orchard led a widened road to Ponyville, who was overcrowded. Pegasi swarmed the streets and tried to step in into some houses. Sugercube Corner was totally overflowed and the pegasi quacked incomprehensible among each other. Of course, the residents of Ponyville tried everything to calm their guests down a little, but even the pegasi weren't much successful with it. Scootaloo craned her neck, finally climbed on her mothers back, to find her heroine. But the cyan pegasi was nowhere to spot. Curryfeather looked meanwhile out for herself and jostled away from the big building in the centre of Ponyville. She didn't know where Sunny Rays lived, but she would find her here surely. She wasn't here at all? She flapped her wings and lifted off. She tried to overview the situation from above, but the houses were all look like the same from there. She flew higher in great circles.
“Scootaloo, where does Aunt Sunny live?”
Finally she realised, that her foal had lived here. The filly took a look and tried to remember. From above it wasn't very easy to find the house and the crowd of ponies didn't make it easier. She founded it at last. She leaned forwards over mums shoulder and pointed out a house on the periphery of Ponyville. Curryfeather flew directly to it and landed on the stairs. Her foal jumped off her back and tried to repress an excited smile, but it wasn't very successful. The mare knocked on the door, but nopony answered. She opened the door and entered an empty home. Where did Sunny Rays go?
Curryfeather looked in every room and her foal followed her. Scootaloo trotted into her old bedroom and stopped shortly after she saw something different. A bed stood in the edge, where her sleeping back had lain. Why would aunt Sunny buy a bed for her? Her mum spotted the bed too and smiled. Sunny was quick. Slowly she trotted backwards and went to the kitchen. Scootaloo walked past the room and spotted something at the end of the bed. Her scooter leaned there and the filly seized out hesitantly. Her hooves stumbled and she felt her heart bouncing against her chest. Before she could give in into the impulse, she coughed and mum called her.
“We will wait here, Scootaloo.”
As she had burned herself on it, she let go the handle bar as fast as she can.
“Are you hungry?”
The chattering sound and the mention of hunger reminded her to be hungry and she left the room. As she averted from the bed, she spotted the posters on the wall and smiled. Wonderbolts. They were cooking together a sweet apple soup, because Sunny Rays hadn't stored anything else to eat. The cooking relaxed Curryfeather and distracted both from the darkness outside. Soon the mare put Scootaloo into her new bed, she wasn't recovered from the cold now and the bed rest would help her to feel better. Curryfeather viewed through the room surprised and satisfied on the same time. Sunny had gathered everything in only one day. She seemed to house Scootaloo gladly and even liked her a lot. Where was she? Scootaloo was laying in the bed, but wasn't able to fell asleep easily. It creaked, if she even moved just a little bit and felt odd warmth. So different to clouds, hardly so uncomfortable like a sleeping back, but unaccustomed for the filly. She turned over and gazed to her mum. If she could wish for something more exciting than sleeping, she would choose to stand up and drove around with her scooter instead of lying in a bed after all. But mum wouldn't allow it, she was sick at all and had to lay down.
“Mum, I have to tell you something.”
She whispered through the silence and bit her lip. She closed her eyes and sighed. She didn't like to remember back to her dreams again and all of the glances above.
“I had dreamed from Daddy and he told me...”
Her foal was fighting against tears and sobs, as she summoned her dreams. Curryfeather opened her mouth here and then, but closed it, as she realised, that Scootaloo was speaking up and should not be interrupted. She spluttered faster and faster to relief the burden and an interruption from her mother wouldn't be good for her.
“I don't want, that you believe:
I do not love you, mum.
But I won't go back to Cloudsdale. Daddy are right with.
I...all of them are looking anytime like and...”
Finally Scootaloos voice broke apart and a sob stopped her story. Curryfeather laid a wing on her head and nuzzled her gentle. She was waiting, if her daughter had more to say, but only sobering and weeping escaped her.
“If you want to, we both stay here, instead.”
Curryfeather snuggled on her foal and nuzzled appeasing over her head. Finally they fell asleep.
Aunt Sunny was finding both in her home, as she returned from the fight with the dragon clouds. Her face, crusted with ashes, smiled and she tiptoed into her bathroom. Under the shower she would transform back into a nice and clean pony.