I Dreamt to Fly

by MrDynasty

17: Too Much Sleep.

Scootaloo was sleeping soundly in her bed, with nothing but the faint sound of a clock ticking in her bedroom. The peaceful silence was interrupted by her stomach making a low toned grumble, signalling she was getting quite hungry. Despite how quiet the grumble was, it caused her wake up and squirm around in her bed.

She felt groggy and tired, trying to ignore her stomach’s call for food. But the feeling of hunger got the better of her, making her sit up and rub her eyes. On the bright side of the situation, she no longer had the throbbing migraine in the back of her head, meaning the feeling of her wanting to puke had now completely subsided.

After a while of some vigorous eye rubbing, she opened both her eyes and looked around her room. Of course it was the exact same as it had always been; no reason for it to have changed while she slept.

She didn’t know if she just wanted to continue resting after she ate or if it was just her being lazy, but she decided to call out instead of going to get the food herself. “Rainbow Dash, I’m starting to feel hungry!” She said, waiting where she was in her bed.

Oddly enough, no pony at all came over to her room; she never even heard any hoofsteps either. She figured that maybe they just didn’t hear her. “Rainbow Dash? Twilight? Is anypony there?” She shouted as a small feeling of loneliness started to wash over her.

Like the last time, no pony seemed to respond to her call outs. It left Scootaloo both confused and frightened at the same time; was she really alone? Maybe Twilight and Rainbow Dash were just sleeping and didn’t wake up from hearing her?

Considering no pony seemed to take notice of her calling out to them, she had to get up and get something to eat herself. She leaned out the bed, pressing her two front hooves onto the ground. Suddenly the floor collapsed at where she put her hooves, making her jump and recoil back onto her bed.

The sounds of the floor cracking and breaking echoed through the room as the rest of her floor began to plummet around her bed. She leaned over and looked to what was now a near endless looking chasm at where her floor used to be, suddenly gaining an extreme case of vertigo.
She pulled herself back onto the middle of her bed, starting to unintentionally hyperventilate. She didn’t feel safe where she was, so she quickly backed up to the top of her bed so she could lean against it’s board.

She started to question her safety as the ground her bed was on began to crack and break, with her whole bed tilting ever so slightly the more the flooring snapped bellow her. There was nothing she was able to hang onto, being completely helpless as she was seconds away from falling into the dark, endless chasm that took up nearly every bit of her flooring.

With a few final cracks from her floor, her bed began to drop into the chasm, bringing her with it. All Scootaloo was able to do was scream and cover her eyes in fear that this may be the end for her. She uncovered her eyes to look up to the dilating light that was her room, with it being the only thing that generated any sort of light inside the deep chasm.

She had never shook or hyperventilated as hard as she did now; completely unsure of what to think or do in the situation she was in. All she could do was wait for what might have been her untimely doom. She leaned slightly over the edge of her bed as it fell; looking down into the pitch black darkness she had fallen into. She swore she began to see a light at the bottom, but before she was able to even comprehend it, she smashed into the ground.

Suddenly she woke up screaming, having sweat pouring down her face as her heart was racing. She quickly sat up in her bed, frantically looking around her room to see if what had just happened was real. Her room still had its flooring, making her look somewhat confused and distressed.

She could hear the faint sound of hoofsteps coming closer to her room, quite quickly as well. Suddenly her door was slammed open by Rainbow Dash, who trotted over to her bed and put her two front hooves onto it. “What’s wrong? Why did you scream?” She asked, looking worried for her.

Scootaloo was still shakily looking around her room, unsure about what just happened. “…M-My floor collapsed and then so did the floor under my bed! There was this large dark hole that me and my bed fell into and… and…” She said, unsure of what else to say that could explain what she just experienced.

It took her longer than she’d like to admit to realize that what she might have just had was a nightmare, with Rainbow Dash saying the same thing shortly after. “It’s okay, Squirt! The floor didn’t break and you never went anywhere. You probably just had a nasty nightmare in your sleep, but you’re here now,” she said, reaching over and pulling her into a hug.

Scootaloo hugged Rainbow Dash back, burying her head into the side of her neck while trying to calm herself down. On the bright side, her migraine WAS gone at least, but one thing that wasn’t gone was the feeling of her stomach grumbling in the middle of the hug.

She pulled out of the hug, looking down to her stomach and smiling nervously. “O-Oh, so I AM hungry after all. Maybe I shouldn’t have gone to bed with an empty stomach,” she said, looking over to Rainbow Dash as she rubbed some sweat off of her head.

Rainbow Dash chuckled and smiled as she trotted away from her bed and towards her room’s entrance. “I’ll go and get you something to eat to sort out those hungry nightmares of yours. Don’t worry, you won’t have to move an inch,” she said as she left her room to go to the kitchen. While Rainbow Dash went to go get something to eat for her, Scootaloo decided to check the time on her desk’s clock. To her surprise, it was quite near midnight. She must have been sleeping ever since she came back from the doctors, since she couldn’t recall waking up at any point in-between then and now.

The bright sunlight of the next day beamed through Scootaloo’s bedroom as she was awoken by the sound of Rainbow Dash’s doorbell. She went to bed pretty late, sort of. After getting something to eat she stayed up couple hours after midnight, meaning she ended up waking up in the afternoon the next day.

She rubbed her eyes and yawned, beginning to stretch under the covers of her bed. After stretching, she quickly got out from her bed so she wouldn’t continue to sleep, having already felt like she overslept in the first place. She decided to do what she’d normally do in the morning. Brush her teeth. But her journey to the bathroom was short lived as her attention shifted to who Rainbow Dash was talking to at the front door.

She curiously trotted over to the door to see who she was talking to, only to see that she was talking to Spitfire. Spitfire noticed that Scootaloo came over, giving a small smile to her as she lifted a hoof. “Good afternoon Scootaloo, glad to see you’re okay. Rainbow Dash came to me yesterday and told me about what happened, and you’ll be glad to know that there is a spot reserved for you in the fourth course,” she said.

Scootaloo honestly thought she heard wrong for the first couple seconds, but her mood drastically changed upon realizing that what she heard was correct. “…Wait really?! B-but I was disqualified!” She said, her tail swishing back and forth excitedly

Spitfire gave a small nod to her. “You were, but a space became available and I figured that you deserved it,” she said as she looked over to Rainbow Dash, who had quite a big smile on her face.
Scootaloo was curious as to what happened that made a space available, and why she was chosen specifically. “Wait, so what happened that made a space available?” She asked, tilting her head and lifting a hoof.

Spitfire looked down to her again and grinned. “Well…”

2 hours ago at the Wonderbolts Training grounds, just before the fourth course should have started.

All of the fillies who passed the previous course had arrived, eager to take on the fourth course. Everything seemed to go as normal until Spitfire arrived. She flew down next to the fillies and coughed to grab their attention. “Good morning to all of you and congratulations for passing the third course. While I’d like to jump straight into the fourth course, something was brought to my attention that may end up postponing it,” she said, causing all of the fillies to look confused to each other.

Spitfire tapped her hoof on the ground so they’d all look to her again. “Yesterday on the third course, a filly by the name of Scootaloo was struck by one of the other contestants, causing her to fall and get disqualified from the course. She was sent to the hospital before I was able to get an explanation, but luckily, her carer came to me a couple hours later to tell me what happened,” she said, suddenly looking a bit more serious than before. “If the one that struck her is here right now, they will have one chance to tell me that they did it. If whoever did it is here and we find out later that it was you, you will be permanently banned from entering into any further filly leagues,” she said in a serious tone.

Every filly began to look around in the group, seemingly to look for who might have done the deed. Spitfire’s attention was quickly grabbed by Rumble, who shouted over to her. “Ms Spitfire! I know who did it!” He said, pushing some of the other fillies out of the way as he pointed to one of the colts in the middle of the group.

Spitfire recognised the colt he pointed to as the same one that was making fun of Scootaloo in the first course. Of course the colt revolted on the accusation. “WHAT?! Why me?!” He said, growling to Rumble in response.

Rumble rolled his eyes and put his hoof down. “Because I saw you do it! You two were arguing and bickering while you were being overtaken!” He said, making a lot of the other fillies nod. They all seemed to agree that Rumble was right; they WERE arguing and bickering with each other, so of course it’s to be assumed he did it.

Realizing there wasn’t much of a way for him to recover, the colt decided that it might have been best to admit it while he could. “F-Fine! I did it! I’m the one that hit her! But I didn’t do it without a reason; she was cheating!” He said, trying to damage control the situation he was in.

Spitfire frowned and looked somewhat angry as she spoke. “Even if she was cheating, it doesn’t excuse what you did. I will not tolerate such behaviour from anypony, so you’re disqualified from the rest of the league,” she said, motioning for him to leave.

After pausing and beginning to cry, he became angry, stomping on the ground in a tantrum. He quickly trotted away and began to fly back home, both embarrassed and infuriated.

“So you disqualified the colt that hit me?” Scootaloo asked, having a wide grin on her face.

However her happiness was short lived, as Rainbow Dash butted in to talk to Spitfire. “A-actually… I don’t think she can participate. The doctors explicitly told us that she had to remain on the ground until she recovered, and they said it could be up to a week!” She said, looking slightly disappointed.

Scootaloo’s grin disappeared as she was reminded of that, having forgotten about what the doctor said. But Spitfire leaned over and pulled her head up. “Hey, don’t worry about that! I’ll just postpone the fourth course until next week when you’re better,” she said as she smiled to her.

Scootaloo looked slightly surprised before she laughed nervously. “N-No, you don’t have to do that. What about all of the other fillies who passed? Isn’t it unfair for them?” She said curiously.

Spitfire shook her head. “It’s only fair you get another chance, since you were unfairly disqualified. We’ve made delays in the past, so this should be no different. And even if you don’t pass the fourth course when you’ve recovered, at least you had a fair chance to try it,” she said with a smile

Of course Scootaloo’s mood lifted again, almost feeling through the roof about it. Rainbow Dash was extremely happy as well, knowing that Scootaloo was going to get a fair chance at competing again next week.

Author's Note:

Might take a small break with the next chapter. May be a day later than usual or something.