It's Not a Cold Dark Place

by Lucky Dreams

First published

Six stars on EQD! To save Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo must confront her fears and sail to the land where dreams are made...

Rainbow Dash has vanished! To save her, Scootaloo must confront her fears and sail to the land where dreams are made...

Six stars on Equestria Daily!

– BONUS: Original Opening (April 2012) –

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With a million thanks to NorsePony, Sgt_Byrd, chrumsum and modulusshift for pre-reading <3


IT’S NOT A COLD DARK PLACE
BY LUCKY DREAMS

Chapter One
Hush Now, Quiet Now

In which a monster talks to Scootaloo in a nightmare — An impossible wish — The doorway of light —
Standing above an ocean of glass — The unexpected pegasus — Lost between the sea and the stars


It was a stuffy night in June, and in a little house on the edge of Ponyville, a pegasus filly had her ear to her parents’ door. Cold sweat dripped down her forehead. On the other side of the door, Mom and Dad were locked in a heated argument.

“What about Scootaloo?” said Mom.

“What about her?” her father replied venomously, making the filly quiver. Mom laughed coldly.

“Well, you’re not taking her with you, that’s for darn sure! She’s staying here in Ponyville.”

“Scootaloo’s a pegasus,” said Dad. “Pegasi belong in the sky. She’s coming to Cloudsdale, and no Earth pony like you is going to stop me from taking her.”

“So you’re interested in her all of a sudden, huh?” Mom spat. “Just like you were interested when you arranged her birthday party last year—oh wait, that was me, wasn’t it? Or like how you were interested when she was in the talent show—ah, but you didn’t even bother to show up, did you?!”

“You’re one to talk, always out of town, always dumping her on Rainbow Clash.”

It’s Rainbow Dash, thought Scootaloo, a prickle of anger mixing with her anxiety; Dad couldn’t even be bothered to get her hero’s name correct, yet he wanted to drag her halfway across the country? She shuddered. She already had enough to worry about, thank you very much, without the threat that everypony who mattered to her would suddenly be missing from her life.

But before the fear could properly take hold, the voices stopped; Scootaloo realised that one of her parents was about to storm out of the room. Panic gripped her. She tried to run but tripped up, smacking her head against the wooden floorboards (though it wasn’t as painful as listening to her parents argue, nonetheless she yelped from shock). With a sickening lurch in her chest, she lifted herself off the floor just in time to see the door burst open.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she cried. “I didn’t mean to listen, I...”

Her voice died, for where there ought to have been her parents’ familiar bed, the tattered rug on the floor and the hand-me-down furniture, there was nothing but darkness. Mom and Dad were nowhere to be seen.

She was alone.

“Hello?” she asked, taking a tentative step towards the room where twenty seconds beforehoof her parents had been arguing fiercely. Was this a joke? Had they known she’d been eavesdropping, and were trying to teach her some strange sort of lesson? “Hello?” she said again, more forcefully this time.

Almost immediately she wished she had kept her little mouth shut, for the voice which responded didn’t belong to her mother or father; in fact it was like none she’d ever heard, and it made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. It was a voice like listening to rusty nails being dragged across a sheet of steel.

“Come closer, Scootaloo,” it said. “There’s a good filly.”

Scootaloo froze in her tracks. “Who’s that?” she whispered. She didn’t even dare to blink.

“You’ve forgotten so soon?” rasped the voice. “But we’ve been meeting so often these past few days! I thought we were becoming thick as thieves.”

“Where’s Mom and Dad?”

“Who?”

Scootaloo stamped a hoof. “What have you done with my parents?”

“I haven’t done a thing,” the voice protested, a distinct tone of impatience present. “Even if I did, surely you’re not suggesting that you’d miss them? The way they’ve been behaving these past few months, like nasty foals, always whining, always fighting, never able to get along... you were on the verge of tears not two minutes ago because of their arguing. Surely you concede your life would be better off without them?”

Though Scootaloo had never heard the word ‘concede’, its meaning was plain enough. Her eyes continued to water, more from fear now rather than the dull pain throbbing in her forehead. In the darkness, she could hear something enormous, as though the owner of the voice was prowling back and forth in a tight circle.

“Sh-show yourself,” said Scootaloo more bravely than she felt. The creature chucked.

“With pleasure, Scootaloo. With pleasure.”

Scootaloo screamed, because in the doorway a pair of eyes appeared, the most terrible eyes she had seen in her life. They were huge and they glowed pure white, illuminating sharp, pointy teeth set in a mouth big enough to swallow a grown pony whole. The filly stood there petrified as the monster bounded towards her, its massive tongue drooling, its breath stinking and its eyes narrowing...


Rainbow Dash burst into the bedroom to find the orange filly tossing and turning and screaming. “Scootaloo,” Rainbow cried. She sat on the bed to try and shake the sleeping pegasus awake. “Scoots, wake up!”

Scootaloo woke up with a start. She was waiting for those awful teeth to sink into her flesh and for claws to rip her limb from limb; she didn’t question why she was suddenly bathed in lantern light or why she was lying underneath a blanket. “Get away, get away,” she shouted deliriously, kicking the blanket aside and accidently getting Rainbow Dash square in the face.

“Ouch,” Rainbow yelled. “Watch where you’re kicking!”

The cry of pain finally brought Scootaloo back to reality. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she took in her new surroundings. Plastering the walls were her Wonderbolts posters, alongside photos of her and her friends. Her scooter was propped up by the door, and next to the bed, sitting in the light of the lantern, there was a pile of all the Daring Do novels she owned, including a few that Rainbow had lent to her.

“Ya ever tried getting a cutie mark in bucking for apples?” said Rainbow, holding her nose. Scootaloo saw that it was bleeding.

... She was in Rainbow’s cloud house. Everything was fine. She was with Rainbow Dash, and everything was going to be fine.

“Sorry,” she whispered sheepishly, bowing her head from embarrassment. Rainbow Dash, however, grabbed a tissue from a box on the bedside desk, and instead of using it for her own bleeding, she wiped Scootaloo’s forehead clean. The filly blushed as she realised that she was drenched in sweat.

“Same dream again?” asked Rainbow. Scootaloo could tell that the mare was trying her level best to keep her voice steady.

“They’re getting worse,” Scootaloo whispered after a pause. “It tried to eat me this time.”

“It did what?”

Despite how sleepy and anxious she felt, Scootaloo grinned (it was less what Rainbow Dash said than it was the sense that there was nothing the older pegasus wanted more than to give the imaginary monster a piece of her mind). Rainbow forced herself to take a calming breath. “Chin up, Scoots,” she said. “So your dreams have been super lame this week; it’s no biggie. They’ll go away.”

Scootaloo sighed. “I hope so.”

It was an understatement. This past week, this bed had been her home, this room her fortress, and Scootaloo stared at the blanket, lost in tired, hazy thoughts. Monsters in dreams were one thing, but Rainbow was right: dreams passed. The pain of Mom and Dad’s separation wouldn’t. The memories of them arguing would never go away, not in a year, not in ten, and Scootaloo was standing in the middle of an endless plain, black sky above her head and tough, dark grass beneath her hooves. Thank Celestia for Rainbow Dash. If this room was her sanctuary from the outside world, then the older pegasus was the only other pony who was allowed to enter.

Her Rainbow Dash... the one adult she could always depend upon...

Without thinking, Scootaloo threw her forelegs around the startled pegasus, but almost immediately she let go. “Sorry,” she mumbled, her cheeks burning. “Um... please don’t tell anypony I did that...”

Rainbow Dash put a hoof on Scootaloo’s shoulder. “Ya mean don’t tell anypony that even the most awesome filly in Ponyville needs a little help sometimes? If ya ask me, that’s what it sounds like you're asking there.”

Behind Rainbow’s eyes, Scootaloo could see pity and love, clear as the colours in the mare’s mane... and suddenly, it was too much to bear: her nightmares, her worries, the memory of her parents’ last fight constantly plaguing her. It had been a week since it had happened. Dad had said he’d had enough, and that the next time he went to Cloudsdale (where he’d been working five days a week for the past four years), he was going to initiate divorce proceedings; then he had stormed out of the house. The following day, Mom was called away for two weeks on yet another urgent business trip, leaving Scootaloo in Rainbow’s loving hooves once more.

Though she tried to stop herself, she couldn’t help but sniffle. Her sniffles turned into full on crying; no longer caring about embarrassing herself in front of her idol, she pressed her face into Rainbow’s coat. Scootaloo allowed the older pegasus to wrap her forelegs around her, making the filly feel, for a brief shining moment, that all the terrible things in the world couldn’t harm her anymore. This was why she loved Rainbow Dash: not because of her flying, her funny pranks or her bravery (awesome though those things were), but because she was the only pony in all of Ponyville who made her feel safe.

She made her feel loved.

After a while, Scootaloo lifted up her head, smiling weakly as Rainbow Dash wiped away her tears. “Rainbow, could, um... could you stay here tonight?” she asked with a gulp, before adding hurriedly, “You can have the bed, I mean. I just want you to be in the same room... I’ll sleep on the floor! I don’t mind. I really don’t mi—”

Before she could say another word, Rainbow leant forward and planted a kiss on Scootaloo’s forehead. Then, standing up, she put the filly’s head back on the pillow and she tucked in the sheets. “Sorry kiddo,” she said gently. “No floor’s good enough for you, so it’s the bed or bust. Listen. I’m down the hallway. If ya need me, even if ya think it’s for something reeeally small, just shout out and I’ll be here in a flash.”

"You mean it?"

“I really mean it. Pinkie promise.” Before leaving, Rainbow opened the window to let in a refreshing summer breeze. “You felt pretty hot to me then,” she said. She eyed the pile of Daring Do novels next to the bed and smiled as an idea came to her. Running a hoof down the spines, she carefully pulled out one of the books and put it within easy reach on the bedside desk. “There ya go. ‘Daring Do and the Crown of Ice.’ If ya wake up and you’re feeling hot, five minutes of that and it’ll cool you right back down again! Oh, and Scoots...”

Scootaloo perked up, a shiver of excitement shooting up her spine; maybe the mare had changed her mind about sleeping in the same room as her. “Y-yeah?”

Rainbow Dash winked. “I bet your mom wishes you sweet dreams, am I right? I’m gonna go one hoof further and wish ya awesome ones! Sleep tight, Scoots. Things’ll look better in the morning.”

Rainbow shut the door behind her as she left, leaving Scootaloo sitting up in the gentle light of her lamp (it was a testament to how often her parents were absent, but half the stuff in Rainbow’s supposed ‘guest’ room belonged to the little filly, from the lamp on the desk, to the clothes in the wardrobe and to the posters on the walls). Tearing her eyes from the door, she switched off the light and shut her eyes.

“Sleep tight, Scoots,” she whispered to herself. Yet, now she was alone again, all her worries marched back one by one to haunt her: the breakup, Mom’s business trips, the possibility of being dragged to Cloudsdale. She was about to call out for Rainbow but stopped herself at the last second. Her hero wanted her to be brave. What she needed was something to take her mind off things.

Then it came to her, a wonderful, wonderful idea, an impossible wish which would have solved every last one of her problems. She knew the thought wasn’t healthy, but then again, what was the harm in dreaming when it made her so happy? Scootaloo smiled. She whispered the thought out loud, trying to fool herself into thinking it could become true.

“I wish Rainbow Dash was my sister.”

With that, she turned over in bed and slowly drifted into an uneasy sleep.


Rainbow was concerned that Scootaloo was spending too much time locked in the guest bedroom, which is why, on a dull, overcast day, the filly found herself in her and her friends’ clubhouse deep in the woods. Usually, this would have been enough to cheer her up, yet this past week the world had been flipped on its head; thinking her parents might split up and knowing that they would were two very different things.

... As much as she loved her two best friends, Scootaloo wanted to be alone.

“We ain’t seen ya for days,” Apple Bloom said. “Ya gotta quit moping!”

Scootaloo scowled. Today, something about the sound of the Earth pony’s voice irritated her. “Shut it,” the pegasus hissed. “My parents are splitting up. I’m allowed to mope.”

Apple Bloom looked like she had been kicked in the face; good, thought Scootaloo. She didn’t see any reason why she should be the only one feeling miserable. “Hay,” Apple Bloom snapped. “At least ya got parents to mope over, you ungrateful—”

Sweetie Belle swiftly placed herself between the two arguing ponies. “Apple Bloom just meant we’re worried about you, that’s all,” she said, each word she spoke drenched in concern. “We miss you, Scootaloo. You haven’t been the same lately...”


Scootaloo wasn’t sure what woke her up: either the memory of Sweetie Belle’s voice from earlier that day or else the horrid sensation in her tummy, as though her insides had transformed into sickly, gloopy slime. She sat up, feeling like there was something she had forgotten to do, something important; yet it was no use pretending she didn’t know what was bothering her. Holding her head in her hooves, she remembered shoving Sweetie Belle aside, kicking open the clubhouse door and then running back to Rainbow’s before her two friends could catch up with her.

“They’ll say sorry,” she said, trying to convince herself that it was her friends who were in the wrong. Her parents were always fighting, were they not? So of course she was going to be moody at times! What did Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom expect? They didn’t know what it was like.

The sickly feeling in her chest deepened, making her almost retch. Kinda goes without saying Apple Bloom doesn’t know what it’s like, Scoots, whispered a guilty voice at the back of her mind. You know, seeing as she doesn’t have parents and all.

Scootaloo felt she had awoken from one bad dream straight into another. She stuffed her face into her pillow and groaned loudly.

After a while, and in the dim light of something glowing underneath the bed, she glanced at her clock; it was twenty to twelve, not even midnight. It had been less than an hour since Rainbow Dash had shaken her awake from her nightmare. With a sigh, Scootaloo rolled over onto the cold side of the pillow and closed her eyes, imagining that abysmal creatures were watching her in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Let them, she thought. It couldn’t have been a worse fate than losing her friends and being forced to move to Cloudsdale.

Opening her eyes again, she discovered that the light had grown brighter, as though somepony was storing a box of stars beneath the bed... then the gears of her mind finally clicked into place. She shot right up, all sleepiness banished in an instant.

There was something underneath the bed.

It was glowing.

“... Rainbow?” she called out. “Hello?”

But there was no answer, and it was no wonder: the bedroom door had vanished! Cold horror flooded through her body, and her mouth dropped open as she stared at the space where the door ought to have been; but it was just cloud there, now. Only the fear of what lurked under the bed kept her from dashing across the floor and banging her hooves upon this newly formed wall.

“RAINBOW!”

Her bed was an island; she was trapped. Her heart pounded against her chest as she saw that the window had disappeared as well, replaced by another wall of cloud.

“RAINBOW DASH! WHERE ARE YOU?!”

Whatever was beneath the bed was now shining so brightly that the whole room was lit up, and the strange position of the light made every shadow seem frightening and unfamiliar. Scootaloo stood up on the mattress. On her honour as Rainbow Dash’s biggest fan, there was no excuse not to be brave and take a look at what was causing this.

Lying flat on her belly, she slowly, slowly stuck her head over the side of the bed to peer underneath.

She gasped.

The thing which was glowing... it looked like a snake, except it didn’t have a face so it was hard to tell which end was which. It was long and thin, and made of soft green light the colour of mint. It slithered across the cloudy floor—right under Scootaloo’s astonished face—and darted up the wall.

“Rainbow Dash! I need you!”

But there was still no answer, aside from the deep note that suddenly began to thrum in her ears. It was a noise so loud and so powerful that she felt it was assaulting her, trying to shake her off the bed; not even covering her ears was enough to block it out. The pile of Daring Do novels collapsed. The furniture shook. It sounded like the world was ending, and her scream was completely drowned out.

More snakes of light started to appear (or perhaps a better way to describe them, she suddenly thought, was like Pinkie Pie’s party ribbons enchanted to life). They poured out from beneath the bed and from under the wardrobe, and even from behind her Wonderbolts posters; there so many that after a few seconds, they became impossible to count. They swarmed on the same wall as the first one, and they were all the exact same shade of minty green; they reminded Scootaloo of a picture she had seen in the library, something Twilight had called the Northern Lights. Once they’d all gathered there, they spun around in a great circle like a school of fish.

The note grew ever deeper, churning up Scootaloo’s belly and making her want to throw up. There had only been one other time in her life that she had felt like this: when she’d been desperately sick, and lying on a makeshift bed Rainbow Dash had made on the couch. She remembered it all too well. Rainbow had had to keep replacing her sick bowl.

Scootaloo hoped to Celestia that she wasn’t about to throw up.

The ribbons of light began to join together, jigsaw like, piece by glowing piece; every time a pair of them collided, there was a clashing sound like a set of cymbals. They began to form patterns so monstrously complicated that when Scootaloo tried to focus on them, they made her more nauseous than ever; she had to squint her eyes to carry on looking. Every fibre of her being shrieked at her to dive under the blanket, shut her eyes, cover her ears and pretend this wasn’t happening! But she was hypnotized. If she tore her gaze away now, she was absolutely certain that she would regret it until her dying day.

Keep on looking, hissed a voice in her head. Don’t miss a thing.

Her patience was rewarded: soon afterwards, the lights formed a rectangular archway which stretched from floor to ceiling. She watched, awe-struck, as the wall of cloud inside of the archway thickened and hardened until it resembled white marble. In the centre, a handle shimmered into existence; it was made of pure gold, and it glistened in the pale green light of the archway.

The deep note ceased.

... It was over.

Scootaloo stared at the wondrous sight as though nothing else mattered anymore, not her parents, her friends, and not even Rainbow Dash. All that mattered was that, with the note silenced and the doorway shining in front of her, she didn’t feel sick anymore, but instead... light. It was the same feeling she got when Rainbow Dash took her in her hooves and flew her up to the cloud house.

"... Sweet Celestia..." she mouthed.

Then she shivered and hugged herself, for although it was a balmy summer’s night, the bedroom felt brutally cold all of a sudden. Her breath misted in front of her face. On the floor, the pages of an open Daring Do novel flipped open, caught in a draft coming from the edges of the marble doorway.

Scootaloo gulped. She had the dim sense that the archway was calling to her, so quietly that she forced herself to hold her breath, afraid that she might accidently drown out the sound of the voice. Scootaloo, the archway whispered (whether the voice belonged to a mare or a stallion was impossible to tell). Come closer, Scootaloo. We’re waiting for you...

Scootaloo slipped out of bed hesitantly, a million thoughts racing through her head; suppose this was all a dream? Until now the possibility hadn’t occurred to her (sheer awe had seen to that), yet now that it had... it made sense, right? The way the window had disappeared, the fact that the doorway had been replaced with this astounding archway... the more she thought about it, the more convinced she was that this was no more than simply another intense nightmare. No doubt her real self was tossing and turning in bed; in a minute, she fully expected to be greeted by Rainbow Dash’s worried face as the mare woke her up.

Scootaloo stopped halfway between the bed and the archway. “Wake up,” she commanded herself. “Wake up, wake up, wake up!”

But she didn’t. All the while another worrisome thought prodded her, refusing to leave her alone: this didn’t feel like a dream. To be sure, dreams never did, but overwhelming instinct told Scootaloo that this was actually happening, and that she wasn’t going to wake up anytime soon.

“Rainbow Dash,” she called out again, but quietly. If the mare was going to respond, surely she would’ve done so by now.

The archway was eager to provide an explanation. Rainbow Dash is already here, it said. She’s waiting for you. She’d be ever so disappointed if you didn’t turn up.

“That’s not true,” said Scootaloo, glaring at the archway. “She’s too awesome to sneak off without telling me first.”

Come and see for yourself.

A gust of wind made Scootaloo cry out in surprise; it had come from behind her, blowing towards the archway instead of from it. The marble door opened a little, inviting her to take a peek at what lay beyond; if she didn’t like what she saw, then she was free to go back to bed, go to sleep and pretend this wasn’t happening: the choice was hers.

Deep down, Scootaloo knew she couldn’t deceive herself with these thoughts. Her knees buckled. She knelt on the floor, a mountainous weight pressing down on her chest, robbing her of breath; from nowhere, a memory of the previous year came back to her...

It was a hot summer’s day, and she, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom had decided they would perform in the local talent show. That night, at Rainbow Dash’s, Scootaloo explained breathlessly about how awesome their act was going to be, and about what their cutie marks would be like (because make no mistake, this show would be where they would finally earn them). “And there’ll be lots and lots of lights, and I’m gonna be the main singer, and—"

“Whoa, slow down,” said Rainbow Dash, looking surprised with herself that the phrase ‘slow down’ could ever escape her lips. “Have you got all this planned out?”

Scootaloo snorted. "It’ll be fine. Relax, Dash!”

Rainbow didn’t look so convinced. “I'm just thinking, Scoots. For something like this... well...”

The smile slid from Scootaloo’s face as Rainbow Dash stared at her thoughtfully. “What about it?” she asked. The mare grinned.

“It’s just that Twi’s always going on about planning and, ya know, egghead stuff like that. This show’s gotta be super wicked awesome! Make sure you’re prepared, is all I’m saying.”

Rainbow Dash winked at her.

... Then Scootaloo came back to herself, still kneeling down on the floor, the archway towering above her. Now that she had had a second to think, rightly or wrongly, there were four things she was certain about.

Firstly, this wasn’t a dream.

Secondly, whether she had been foalnapped or tricked, Rainbow Dash was trapped behind the archway and needed help.

Thirdly, she, Scootaloo, was the only one who could give her that help.

And lastly, for as tempting as it was, rushing through the doorway without preparing beforehoof was an amazingly bad idea. Make sure you’re prepared...

Scootaloo racked her mind. Planning ahead had never been her strong suit; indeed, she was already half considering charging through the archway with nothing but the wings on her back and with courage in her heart. “Think, Scootaloo,” she said, tapping her forehead. “Rainbow needs you. Thiiink.”

As her breath misted from the inexplicable coolness, a thought came to her: wherever she was heading was obviously remarkably cold, so she would have to wrap up warm. Rummaging around in her wardrobe, she found a woolly hat given to her by Rainbow Dash for Hearth’s Warming Eve, and she also uncovered some fluffy pink hoofboots from Mom. The hat put a smile on her face but the boots summoned the faint taste of vomit back to her mouth; but what choice did she have? Though she didn’t care one jot about fashion, even so, she was glad nopony was around to see her put on the boots.

Something gleamed at the back of the wardrobe: the scarlet, gold-lined cape Sweetie Belle had made for her. A pang of guilt pricked Scootaloo, because what she wouldn’t have given to have her two best friends right there by her side... how could she have treated them so badly? “It’s not your fault,” she reminded herself. “They’re the ones who need to say sorry, not you. ”

All the same, Scootaloo fished out the cape, thankful for the way it distracted from her awful boots. As an afterthought, she also strapped on her Wonderbolts satchel—another present from Rainbow Dash—and in it she placed a framed photo of herself, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle (she had to retrieve it from where, in anger, she had hurled it to the floor earlier that evening). She also grabbed her copy of ‘Daring Do and the Crown of Ice’, because who knew how long this adventure might last? Was it unreasonable to assume she might, at some point, find herself wishing that she’d brought a book?

Scootaloo beamed, proud of how massively, enormously organized she was being. Twilight Sparkle, eat your heart out, she thought.

She looked at her clock: it was midnight exactly, and never before had she felt more awake or alert.

Her heart beat furiously. Her body flooded with adrenaline.

This was it.

Scootaloo put a hoof on the marble and, imagining that Rainbow Dash was standing beside to keep her safe, pushed on it as hard as possible.

What she encountered took her breath away...

Where there should have been a corridor, she found herself gazing out over what appeared to be an endless plain of black glass. More than that, however, instead of a ceiling there was a wide open sky, over which a million stars had been sprinkled carelessly, stars the likes of which she had never seen: big ones, small ones, red ones, blue ones, yellow ones. Scootaloo wished desperately that she had somepony to share this wonder with, because how clearly she could imagine the dumbfounded look that would have been gracing Sweetie Belle’s face, and the twinkle that might have been present in Apple Bloom’s eyes.

Her breath came in shallow bursts as she peered at the space dividing this cold new world from Rainbow’s guest room. The cloudy floor extended beyond the archway for a few metres more, forming a little ledge above the glassy plain. “Chin up, Scoots. You’re brave. You can do this.”

With that, she crossed the threshold before she had a chance to talk herself out of it. And though there was nothing unusual about the cloud on the other side of the archway, the instant she touched it, electricity shot through her hooves, her legs, and danced over her body. She had walked from the safety of one world and right into another.

Scootaloo: Cutie Mark Crusader and explorer extraordinaire!

Only the thought of what Rainbow Dash would do kept her from collapsing to her knees again in a quivering heap. Be brave, she repeated to herself. Be strong. Rainbow would want you to be strong.

In time, she saw that the ledge was not actually a ledge at all, but a tiny island of cloud scarcely big enough to hold a cartload of ponies. The archway stood in the centre of it, tall and proud. Curiously, although one side of the archway led back to the bedroom, when she looked through the other side, the room was nowhere to be seen: here, the space inside of the arch was empty, as if Rainbow’s house didn’t even exist. More so than the freezing air of this mysterious world, the sight chilled her to the very core of her soul; the thought of a world without Ponyville was as dark as thoughts came.

“Rainbow dash! Where are you?”

For all the good this did, she might as well have curled up and gone to sleep: her shouting was met with profound silence. It crept its way under her skin, giving her the very definite sense that she was tiny, that the world was huge, and that it couldn’t care less what she desired no matter how loudly she cared to shout it out. If she was going to save Rainbow Dash, she would have to come up with a better plan than merely screaming the mare’s name.

But then... what was she supposed to do? The glass looked too fragile to stand on, but if she couldn’t step on the glass, where else was there to go? Scootaloo bit her lip in frustration. She sensed that the answers were right in front of her nose, laughing at her and barely of reach.

With no obvious way forward, she studied her reflection in the glass. Or was it ice? As she had done on the bed earlier, she lay on her belly and reached out her hoof to cautiously touch the glass.

Her hoof sunk into it. It was wet. It was cold.

“It’s water!” she gasped. “I’m in the ocean!”

And she was. It was an ocean so utterly calm that she’d never seen the likes of it. Not even puddles after a rainstorm were as peaceful as this.

... What was this place?

Drawing back her hoof, she crossed her forelegs, hoping against hope that a plan would drop into her head. “Rainbow Dash would know what to do,” she said, scolding herself. “She wouldn’t be wasting time like this.”

Hearing a voice—even her own—was comforting. Recently, with the breakup, Rainbow Dash had started singing her to sleep at night using a lullaby taught to her by Fluttershy (it was a great secret, because Rainbow singing something as lame as a lullaby? Please!). Right then, Scootaloo would have given the whole world and more to hear that lullaby.

So not knowing what else to do, she began to sing.

“Hush now, quiet now,
It's time to lay your sleepy head.
Hush now, quiet now,
It's time to... go to... bed...”

Her voice trailed off as something caught her attention, a sight so immensely welcome that she was half-convinced her imagination was playing tricks on her: it was a boat! It wasn’t an ordinary boat either, for it lacked sails and it was made of... what was it made out of? As far as she could tell, the same material that caused the stars to light up at night. The most peculiar thing of all, however, wasn't that the boat was shining, but that when she looked harder, she noticed that nopony was steering it. The boat was empty.

Scootaloo shivered.

The star-boat came to a halt beside the cloud, inviting her to step aboard. The filly gaped at it. The glowing material was neither too bright nor too dim. There were beautifully intricate patterns carved both inside and the outside the hull, all of which reminded Scootaloo of waves crashing on the seashore. But it was the white puffy cushions scattered all across the floor which most caught her attention: it was a treat simply to look at them, for they made her feel gloriously sleepy... and a tiring night this had been... after everything she had been through, didn't she deserve a good night's rest?

“It’s not like there’s anywhere else to go,” she whispered. “Maybe it’s been sent here to help me.”

She already had one hoof planted on the boat when the voice made her jump. “You’re not thinking about climbing in, are you?! Star Swirl's beard! Tell me you’re smarter than that!”

Scootaloo had to flap her wings in order to steady herself, and even then she only just managed to avoid splashing in the water. Panicked, and retreating back onto the cloud, she spun her head around to see who had spoken.

She rubbed her eyes in disbelief, for she was met with a light brown coat of fur, a hat more suited to the jungle than the ocean, and a mane and a tail like Rainbow Dash’s but with all the colours sucked out. The mare had violet eyes. On her flank, she had a compass for a cutie mark.

It was Daring Do.

“Huh,” said Daring with a grin (her voice was rough like Rainbow’s, exactly how Scootaloo had always imagined it). “You look like ya seen a ghost. And to answer your questions, no, you’re not dreaming, and no, you can’t have my autograph. Don’t be so childish. What d’you think I am? A pop star?”

“I... I...”

“Aw, and she’s so articulate!” said Daring, though not unkindly. “Whilst we’re on the subject of pop stars, a bit of free advice: promise me you won’t try and get your cutie mark for singing. ‘Cos kid, I heard ya sing. Give it up. No hope. Ain’t happening.”

Scootaloo stood there on her cloud, gob-smacked, and with no idea how to respond. It wasn’t just the sudden appearance of her favourite fictional character, but also the boat the mare was standing in; it was the polar opposite of the star-boat. It was made from wood. It had a little mast with an orange flag strung at the top, and it had two black, triangular sails. A lantern hung above the bow, illuminating the word ‘VENTURE’ painted messily on either side of the hull. However, it was the inside of the boat which fascinated Scootaloo, because where there ought to have been a wooden floor with wooden benches, there was a mattress. It fitted in so snugly that it must have been poured into the hull; how else could it have been squashed in so well? A thick, navy blue blanket had a hole cut in the middle to make way for the mast, and at the front of the boat, by the lantern, there were three plump pillows.

Seeing how entranced Scootaloo was, Daring Do said: “What are you staring at? A mare's gotta sleep! And anyways, with boots like those ya can’t judge me for all of this.”

“Hay,” snapped Scootaloo. “My Mom got... I mean, these were the best I could get at short notice.”

Daring chuckled. “C’mon kid, you know I was only messing with ya. So you have a name or what?”

Daring Do, the most brilliant explorer in the world and star of both book and screen, was asking for her name. If this wasn’t a dream, it was at least as strange as one. “It’s Scootaloo,” she said. “The one and only.”

“Well, ‘the one and only,’ what are you doing on that cloud? Get in.”

It’s Daring Do, that’s all, Scootaloo thought to herself as she walked to the wooden boat. It’s Daring Do asking you to get in her boat in an ocean which shouldn’t exist. It could happen to anypony. Probably.

A wild grin spread across her face, and pure glee gushed through her chest and up to her head. She struggled to remind herself that she wasn’t here to have fun but to save Rainbow Dash; Daring Do just wanted to help.

Right?

Now Scootaloo stopped and thought about it, why was Daring Do here? Her grin faded away as quickly as it had come, and she halted in her tracks, glancing back at the star-boat. When she heard Daring Do speak again, the mare had dropped her light-hearted tone. “From where I’m standing,” she said, “that looks less like a boat and more like a spider’s web. You’d have a proper fool to get inside it.”

“... What d’you mean?”

The star-boat continued to sit on the water, inconspicuous, almost as if it was eavesdropping on the conversation. “You know what I mean,” said Daring.

Scootaloo was about to say that she hadn’t the foggiest idea what she meant. However, before she could, the memory of dreadful glowing eyes flashed in her mind, a huge mouth, a rolling tongue and teeth like knives. But the idea that the monster which haunted her dreams might in fact be real was... it was absurd!

As ridiculous a thought as Daring Do being a real pegasus...

Scootaloo shook her head; she was being stupid. Daring must have been referring to something else because the monster wasn’t real. It wasn’t real.

It couldn’t be real.

“You’re just going to stand there then, yes?” said Daring. Scootaloo didn’t move. A little voice at the back of her mind warned her not to rush into this.

“How do I know you’re gonna help me?” said Scootaloo, nerves creeping into her voice. Daring Do sighed.

“Kid, it’s either you get in my boat, get in the other boat, or you go back through the archway; that’s not off the cards ya know. When you wake up in the morning you’ll be minus your Rainbow Dash, but hay! One pony never mattered, not least one who loves you like family. Go and have a happy little time in Cloudsdale. Spend your whole life telling yourself you did everything you could to save your hero.”

There was an extremely long pause after this; to Scootaloo, it felt like an entire age of Equestria. At last she said, “You already knew my name, didn’t you? And how d’you know about Rainbow and Cloudsdale?”

The grin returned to Daring’s face. “Would you look at that? You’re not a lost cause after all... Scoots, I know you better than you know yourself, and I know for a fact that as scared as you are, if you trot your tail back through that archway without making the slightest effort to save Rainbow Dash, you will never, ever, ever forgive yourself.” Daring Do lowered her voice to a whisper. “So what’s it to be?”

Scootaloo looked at the archway in the middle of the cloud. Daring was right, she could feel it in her guts. What was to stop her from going back? There was nothing. If she wanted to, she could crawl into bed and come morning, supposing that the adventurer’s assumption was correct, the archway would be gone.

And so would Rainbow Dash.

“Aw, how sweet,” said Daring in the driest tone she could muster. “Climb aboard kiddo, I’ve got tissues.”

For a moment, Scootaloo wondered what Daring meant by this; then she noticed the tears streaming down her face. Blushing, she wiped her face and finally jumped onto the mattress, feeling as though she was sinking into the fluffiest cloud imaginable. Her knees gave way as she collapsed into comfort; she was so relieved that her tears grew larger (it was useless to hide them, though that didn't stop her from trying). Daring Do gave the side of the boat a short, sharp tap with one of her hooves. To Scootaloo’s astonishment, the sails suddenly filled with a strong wind which she couldn’t feel.

“Cool, huh?” Daring said as the magical sails carried them away from the cloud. “Hang on tight: we’ve gotta go as fast as possible. Places to go, other ponies to pick up, yadda, yadda.”

“Other ponies? You mean Rainbow Dash?”

Daring smirked. “You’ll see.”

The mare said no more after this. Scootaloo put her hooves over the side of the boat and stared at the cloud, her own little cloud which represented her last, real connection with Ponyville, her friends, her parents, her whole entire life. Her gaze also fell on the star-boat, still waiting for a passenger it would never receive. She shuddered to think how close she had come to climbing into it; who knows what would have happened to her?

The cloud was getting smaller. Smaller. Smaller.

... It was gone. Lost between the sea and the stars.

And the ocean lay before them.