“You’re awesome, Rumble!”

“Huh?” Rumble looked around and found himself in Ponyville, except… everything was… opaque, the sky was dark but he could see everything else as clear as day.

“The best flier of your generation!”
“The way you zoom and dive and flap and- and- WOW!”
“You’re gonna be BIG, kid!”

All of a sudden, Rumble found himself becoming mobbed by ponies he didn’t know! All of them, cheering him, praising him, but all with the same look on their faces.

Admiring but no true connection.

“Go away! Leave me alone” Rumble pushed his way through them and started running.

“Wait, Rumble!”
“Come back!”
“I want your autograph!”
“Take a photo with me, champ!”

The adulations of these “fans” was starting to sound scary to Rumble, demanding, not to be ignored. But he ran, terrified and desperate to get away.

I gotta get away, but where do I go?! Rumble fretted as he ran as fast as his hooves could carry him. As if something were answering his worries, he gasped to see ahead, “The schoolhouse! Perfect!”

He groaned in worry as he ran harder, the stampeding fans still hot on his tail, but it seemed the harder he ran for the schoolhouse the further it seemed to be. It became even worse as the crazed fans’ voices started to become distorted and frightening.

“gO, RUmBle! GO, ruMblE! GOooOOooOOOO!!”
“hE’S ThE beSt!”
“RuMbLe’s SOOOoooOOOooo cOOl!”

“C’mon, c’mon...!!” Rumble worried when he finally realized, “Wait! I’m a pegasus!”

He jumped, took flight, and almost at once, the fanbase of fanatics seemed to distance behind him while he got closer to the schoolhouse!

As he got closer, Rumble saw colts and fillies hanging around the schoolhouse. He could see colts and fillies running about, playing games, laughing, “I’m gonna make it… I’m gonna make it!”

He didn’t make it. All of a sudden, a whole flock of pegasi barred his way and surrounded him, Rainbow Dash among them as she said, “C’mOn, KId! yOU’vE gOt TrAIniNg tO Do, YoU dOn’T HAve tiME foR fRIenDs Or SChoOl!”

The look on their faces made Rumble shiver in fright., big smile but blank eyes but he peered over them, looking to the schoolhouse, and saw…

“Sweetie Belle! Twinken! Apple Bloom! Button Mash! SCOOTALOO! Help me, they won’t leave me alone!”

Scootaloo’s ear twitched and Rumble almost cried tears of joy as she turned to him, the rest of their friends following.

“Rumble…?”

She asked questioningly, completely unfazed by the crowd, almost surprised, as though she couldn’t understand what was wrong.

“Please, you have to get these ponies to go away! I don’t want to be cheered and praised! I don’t want to be set up as some kind of idol!”

“Huh, well sorry, but you’re way too popular and famous for us now. Us little ponies can’t really associate with you anymore. We’d just cramp your style. Congratulations Rumble, goodbye.”

Then to Rumble's complete shock and horror, Scootaloo and the rest of his friends all just turned away and walked over to the rest of the foals, joining in their games, completely ignoring him. The crowd started cheering so loud it was just like a white noise, all garbled and incoherent, loud enough it was ringing through his ears. They were so close now he literally couldn’t take a step in any direction, and the still came closer.

“No, NO! Please stop this! Please stop cheering for me! PLEASE!!”

“RuMBle Is ePic!”

“rUmbLE fOreVEr!”

“RUmBle!” “ruMBle!” “RUMBLE!” “RUMBLE!!” “RUMBLE!!!”

So many ponies so close everything was turning dark, they were all moving in surrounding him, completely smothering him. He took one last look at the sky, sheer terror plastered on his face, as everything went dark and he was swarmed by fans…

“ENOUGH!”

A bright blue light burst across his eyes and suddenly all the fans were tossed away, landing in here and there and bursting into puffs of smoke when they hit the ground that was quickly blown away by an eerie wind. He looked around to see that not a single fan was left.

And yet... somepony still stood above him.

He looked up and gasped, as Princess Luna stood before him, her mane a beautiful nebula and her eyes filled with a blazing passion. She looked at all the fans around them and then with a glow from her horn, a blue light flashed across the scattered ponies and they all disappeared into a bunch of large mists clouds, which scattered in the wind.

“P-Princess Luna?”

The Princess gave another hard look at their surroundings before letting out a breath and then returning to face the colt with a smile.

“Be calm, young one. I sensed your distress and entered your dreams to ward off the nightmares harassing you.”

“Ohhh!” Rumble realized as he looked around and suddenly saw a calm scenario of Ponyville Park, where he and his fellow Crusaders went to play sometimes when they weren’t out crusading for their cutie-marks.
“I remember my friends telling me that you helped them out when they were having nightmares!”

“It is my duty as the Princess of the Night to help ponies slumber peacefully, young Rumble,” Princess Luna smiled at his recognition with an appreciative nod. “As it is also my pleasure to help these ponies understand what causes their bad dreams and how to resolve them.

“It appeared to me that you fear special attention and how it may drive a wedge between you and your friends.”

Rumble looked at Princess Luna in shock as hearing her say those words hit the nail on head, and how right she was!

“Well, it may interest you that another has had the same problem, Rumble.”

“Who?”

Princess Luna waved her wing and Rumble watched as an image appeared... depicting Princess Celestia, standing on a balcony, a crowd of her adoring subjects cheering for her.

“Your sister Princess Celestia?!” Rumble was surprised but also confused. “But… she’s a princess! Everypony loves her and looks up to her!”

“Ah, but let’s take a closer look, Rumble,” Luna willed the image to zoom in on her sister and Rumble what she was talking about.

The image showed Princess Celestia barely waving her hoof, the smile was forced, but the look in her eyes… Rumble had seen something like that before!

Scootaloo…! he realized to himself.

Back when he saved her from the falling branch, before he could really talk to and got swept up by the ponies cheering for him. He’d seen Scootaloo with a sadness not unlike what he was seeing here in this image of Princess Celestia.

Noticing Rumble was beginning to understand, Luna dispelled the image and let Rumble think before he said, “I… I don’t understand, but… Princess Celestia wasn’t happy there! She was faking her smile, and there was nothing happy about her eyes!”

“And yet so long ago, Rumble, it was very different,” Luna nodded heavily, “Being special and seen as special does not mean it will make you happy.

“Over a thousand years ago, I craved the adoration and glory given to my sister by our subjects, feeling ignored and taken granted for. Meanwhile, my sister actually allowed all that praise and cheering to change her. It went to her head… it tore a great rift in our bond as sisters, and when I tried to talk to her, I soon saw that she too had come to take me for granted as well, and ignored my own feelings. Our failure to talk things out as sisters and as rulers hurt our kingdom, and in my weakness I became Nightmare Moon. My sister realized how wrong she had been but was forced to stop me and it resulted in my banishment to the moon for a thousand years.

“But while I languished in my exile for all that time, my sister was left to run a kingdom of ponies for a thousand years, isolated from her subjects and forced to appear the strong, the graceful, and composed ruler everypony sees her as to this day. And for all that time there were all too few around whom she could just be herself, show those sides of her she could not to the public.

“I was punished with banishment but my sister was punished as well.”

Seeing Princess Luna look sad as a tear began to well up in her eyes, Rumble wished he could make himself feel better when a handkerchief appeared in front of him. It made him wonder a moment, but remember this was a dream he shrugged, took it in his teeth and walked over to Luna. She noticed him approach, his eyes full of concern and the handkerchief he was offering her. She smiled gratefully and accepted it with her telekinetic aura to wipe her tears away as she said, “Thank you.”

Rumble let Luna have a moment to recompose herself before she finally cleared her throat and said, “It is not a bad thing to be proud of your skills, Rumble, and to be recognized for your skills and for your efforts in doing the right thing.

“So long as you keep yourself grounded and remind yourself that you are not the only special pony out there, you can cheer for others as strongly as they may cheer for you. Everypony deserves to be recognized for their merits and their efforts. Remember that, and you’ll never be swept away by the lull of fame.”

“...Thanks, Princess Luna,” Rumble smiled at the moon princess but something still tugged at his conscience, which Luna saw as the dream reacted to Rumble and manifested an old memory.

“Scootaloo,” she said when she saw the dream manifest her, and Rumble looked and gasped as he recognized what was happening before them.

He saw himself, younger, crying, sitting in the shade of a tree, and there was a younger Scootaloo. She had been zooming by on her scooter but somehow she’d noticed him beneath that tree. She’d left her scooter on the path and walked over to him. Younger Rumble seemed to hear her and looked up, his cheeks stained with tears, looking upset but bewildered as Scootaloo approached him. Then Scootaloo spoke to him.

For some reason, Luna didn’t hear the words, but the look on Rumble’s younger self said enough as he wiped his tears away, Scootaloo smiling as she offered her hoof. Rumble seemed to hesitate before beginning to crack a smile as he accepted Scootaloo’s gesture and placed his hoof on hers. She suddenly yanked him to stand up, to his surprise as she dragged him towards her scooter. She set it up, and said something to Rumble. He looked afraid but then he took the steering handle of the scooter as Scootaloo slapped her helmet onto his head, to his confusion, and stepped up behind him, wrapping her hooves around his middle, and then her wings buzzed, younger Rumble screamed in terror as a laughing Scootaloo propelled them off, the two of them vanishing over a hill.

Luna looked to her side and saw Rumble, a tear running down his face but smiling at the same time, looking warm but a little sad at the same time.

“So what was that?” Luna asked.

“That was when Scootaloo and I first met,” Rumble replied, taking a deep breath. “Not long before that… my mom and dad died. I cried so long and hard and… Well, a few weeks after the funeral I got so upset I ran off from school. Somehow I wound up crying under that tree, and then…

“There she was! It’s… kinda silly, she told me she was looking for a wing-pony and told me I looked like I needed a friend. She got me to drive her scooter, even though I’d never ridden one before and, ha-ha! She held on behind me and just made us go!”

Luna smiled, seeing Rumble smiling and even laughing warming her heart as he continued, “I must’ve screamed the entire ride! It was so scary that I refused to go anywhere near that scooter for a week, but… After that, Scootaloo and I just started hanging out, more and more! When I started flying, she was happy for me, and said I was gonna be her wing-pony all the way to the Wonderbolts!

“I like the Wonderbolts, but I’m not really interested in joining them when I get bigger, but… Scootaloo began to notice how she was getting older and still hasn’t flown yet. One day, I went to visit her but her parents told me she was hurt because she’d hurt herself trying to fly! She was so upset, not because she was hurt but because she wasn’t flying. After that, I… stopped flying around her. I didn’t want her to feel bad that I was flying and she wasn’t. I swore I’d always be there for her, so that she’d never feel that bad again.

“But… After I saved her at the race, and everypony was cheering for me… The look on her face! It reminded me so much of that day when she’d hurt herself, how upset she’d been… and I’m the reason she feels that way again now!”

The smile was gone, and the tears were flowing as Rumble tried to calm down as he sobbed, prompting Luna to sit by him and hold him to her barrel with her wing to warm him up.

“Oh Rumble… Jealousy can be an ugly thing, but it’s not something we should condemn,” Luna assured him, “Seeing you cheered and praised by all those ponies, Scootaloo was jealous! But here’s something you should know.”

Sniffling, Rumble looked up at Luna as she said, “Scootaloo was jealous of you, but she was angry at herself for being jealous!”

“I-I don’t… I don’t unders-stand!” Rumble hiccuped, Luna rubbing him warm with her wing.

“Scootaloo cares so deeply about you, Rumble,” Luna explained in an assuring voice, “and for all this time she has appreciated your friendship and your support. But she’s still only a filly, and ponies her age are still prone to feelings like jealousy. Even so, she cares about you and values the bond you share so much, that she feels ugly for being jealous of you, especially after you saved her life!

“She needs you, Rumble. She needs you to show her that you care, about her, about her feelings, and even if she puts on a brave face she needs to know that there are no hard feelings between you two, and that she shouldn’t be afraid of showing how she truly feels.”

Rumble was awed by Luna’s words and smiled appreciatively at her as she wiped his tears away with her wing. She then stood up, and backed away, the dreamscape around them suddenly glowing, “Show her you care, Rumble. Show her herself….”

The park was quiet when Rumble arrived. It was still early and most ponies tended to sleep in on a weekend. This made it quite easy for Rumble to make out the sound of a buzzing, repeating over and over near a large group of bushes.

Slowly he moved around it to see Scootaloo concentrating hard, her eyes squeezed shut and her wings a blur of motion. But for all the clear effort she was putting in, her hooves seemed to only leave the ground for a few fractions of a second before floating back down.

Despite this, she didn’t stop, not once. Her wings continued to buzz, and sweat covered her fur. Rumble just stood and watched her silently, his eyes taking in the whole scene. Eventually though, the buzzing began to slow, and the quiet panting coming from her mouth increased, until finally her wings came to a stop, and her hooves remained solid on the ground.

“Why can’t I do it… why is it so hard…?” Rumbled strained to hear the quiet words slip pass her lips, her eyes still closed and her head dipped low.

“Scootaloo…”

The word, gentle though it was, made the young filly freeze. Very slowly she lifted her head and opened her eyes, seeing Rumble standing there for the first time.

She said nothing at first, startled into silence, but Rumble’s concerned eyes and worried frown eventually loosened her lips.

“…Hey Rumble… Um, I was just… well…”

“I’m so sorry, Scootaloo.”

The orange filly was surprised as she felt Rumbles hooves wrap around her in a warm strong hug.

“I know that the crowd cheering for me yesterday must have been rough. If I’m being honest with myself, I do admit I have a pretty good talent for flying, far more than most pegasus foals our age, but... I also know that when it’s the other way around for you, it can be really hard.”

Scootaloo said nothing, her eyes squeezing shut and a few trickles of tears managing to slide down her cheeks. All throughout, Rumble never let go, holding her firmly.

“Yesterday I felt really overwhelmed. I hated all the attention. I hadn’t ever really thought of myself as being more talented than anypony else, but everypony else didn’t seem to agree. The whole thing gave me nightmares so bad that Princess Luna had to come help me. But despite how worried and scared I was, the thing that hurt the most, was knowing that I had hurt you.”

“No, Rumble, you didn’t hurt me.”

Scootaloo gave a sniff, and rubbed her eyes a little, before leaning back so Rumble could see her face.

“For a long time now I’ve wondered about my wings. If I really was just a late bloomer like everypony keeps saying, or if maybe there’s something wrong with me inside. I don’t know. I just know that everyday it just hurts more. Seeing all the other pegasi reach the clouds, claim their birthright and tame the sky, while I just sit here, my wings buzzing and getting nowhere. Seeing you getting all the praise yesterday, after I had been so close to the mark, and completely unable to help myself. It just… it just felt like destiny, or fate or whatever force out there was just taunting me.”

Rumble felt tears building in his own eyes, but he held them back as Scootaloo continued, a tiny smile working its way onto her muzzle.

“But I know it wasn’t you that hurt me Rumble. I was just upset and lashing out. Seeing you getting praised for how talented you are, it fills me with pride. To know my best friend has so much in him, has such great potential to be an amazing flier, to be the next Rainbow Dash if he really wanted to be. So don’t apologize Rumble. You didn’t hurt me, not at all. It was just a good day that turned bad.”

Rumble was silent for a few moments taking in everything she said. After a moment though, a change over came him. A confidence and a strength that made a tiny part of Scootaloo feel completely safe in his arms.

“Bad days do happen, nothing that can be helped. But what can be helped is this. I promise you, Scootaloo, that someday, I will get you into the air. I don’t know what it will take, I don’t know how long, but I promise you I will help make it happen. Because you’re my best friend and probably the most special pony in my life and I never want to see that kind of hurt on you again. If I really am talented, then that talent isn’t going to be for flashy moves or super speed or becoming Rainbow 2.0. It will be for helping my friend reach the heights she was always meant to soar!”

Scootaloo could feel it with every word, with all the power and determination in his face. A fierce blush spread across her muzzle and she felt her heart beating as fast as her wings could buzz, but the smile she had was the widest it had ever been.

They both moved at the same time, hugging together with all their strength, a cherry glow on both their faces.

Only for a pulsing green beam to strike them.

They both broke apart to see each wearing a very fancy outfit. A sharp suit covered a confused Rumble, while a puffy ballroom gown was draped over Scootaloo to her mortification.

They looked across the park to see Rarity dashing passed with a mad look on her face and a green glow in her eyes. Behind her was a frantic Spike and an irritated Blueblood berating him.

The complete absurdity of the scene left the two pegasai staring blankly for a moment before they turned to each other. Then, a huge grin crossed their muzzles and the park with filled with the sound of laughter.

Twilight sat comfortably on her favorite cushion with a book held in front of her muzzle when, when a tired and scuffed up Spike waltzed through the door and dragged himself off to the bathroom. She was confused for a moment, but decided she’d wait until dinner to ask him what that was about. After all, with Midnight away for some ‘royal business’ as he had put it, in Canterlot, she could spend some much needed with her assistant.

Still she was curious about what sor of royal business Celestia had Midnight taking care of away from Ponyville.

She thought on it for a moment before dismissing the thought. Whatever it was, Midnight would be back soon and she could get an answer out of him about it then.

After all, what could her smart-aleck coltfriend get up to in Canterlot?

Dark Alley swung back and forth from a tree branch upside down, the dark woods adding to the terror he felt. Before him stood a line of cloaked ponies, all standing in a semi-circle and watching him silently as the frightened stallion rotated slowly from the rope dangling him down.

Slowly the figures started to part and another cloaked pony approached, slightly taller than the others, and emitting a far more sinister aura. A blue glow phased out from beneath the hood, peeling it back to reveal blue fur shadowed by the forest’s darkness. But once Dark Alley saw the fangs in his mouth and the glowing eyes, he felt fear like never before.

“Good evening, Dark Alley. I apologize for the interruption to your otherwise corrupt evening, but I find myself with a situation I believe you could assist me in.”

Sweat poured down the earth pony's fur as a lion-like tail snuck out from beneath the stallions cloaked and slowly stroke his cheek. Hidden by the shadow of his hood, Midnight just smiled at his terror as he ran his tongue over one of his fangs.

“Yes indeed, Dark Alley... we've got a lot to talk about…”

I did the nightmare scene as well as Luna's part in helping Rumble

Pontiac56 did the part after where Rumble and Scootaloo talk and make up, as well as everything else, and I wrapped thigns up with editing