Scootaloo lay curled up in a ball on the floorboards with her eyes closed, trying her darnedest not to make a sound. She didn't know how long she had been lying there, and she was afraid to look; if the sun had already set, then she'd feel obligated to go home before her mom started to worry. If she didn't know, she could stay as long as she liked.

The breeze whooshed past her through the open windows above, making them clank quietly against their frames. Somewhere beyond the sturdy wooden walls, the leaves of apple trees rustled.

"Hey, squirt," Rainbow Dash said. The filly nearly jumped; she usually could hear Rainbow's wings beating or at least the creak of the wood as the mare's hooves touched down. But no—she had managed to creep up there unheard.

Scootaloo could have continued to lie there unmoving without making a sound, and maybe Rainbow Dash would go away. But she appreciated the company. "Hi, Rainbow Dash," Scootaloo murmured, her eyes still closed.

"Mind if I come in?" Rainbow asked politely.

"Go for it." Scootaloo took a deep breath and listened as the floorboards creaked with each of Rainbow Dash's hoofsteps. She felt the mare plop down right next to her in the empty clubhouse and then, unexpectedly, a hoof running through her mane.

"How are you doing?" Rainbow asked in an oddly calm voice.

Scootaloo considered lying, but there wasn't really a point. "N-not so swell," she said, her voice quavering. "It's... it's been two months."

"I know, squirt... I know. And I'm... I'm here for you. If you need anything. Us sisters gotta stick together, you hear?"

Scootaloo nodded. "Yeah."

"And just remember... I know you're thinking it, but... it's not your fault, Scoots. You didn't do anything wrong."

"I-I know," Scootaloo stammered. "You don't need to keep saying it."

"I know, kiddo... I just wanna make sure you believe it."

"Well, thanks."

A moment went by.

"Hey, um... I was wondering... you wanna maybe come and sleep over at my house tonight? Sisters' night together or whatever?"

Scootaloo paused. "I dunno if my mom—"

"Already talked to her, kiddo," Rainbow interjected. "She said it sounded like a great idea. Should help you take your mind off... things."

"O-oh," Scootaloo murmured. "Then yeah. That sounds... nice."

"Heh, you're sounding more like Fluttershy every day," Rainbow said. "C'mere, squirt."

Scootaloo finally opened her eyes to see the dark room of the clubhouse but she focused on standing and turning to face the cerulean mare. The filly was taken aback at how sombre Rainbow's expression was but stepped forward to allow the older mare to wrap her in a tight hug. Scootaloo found herself holding on for dear life as an acrid sadness took over and made tears stream down the filly's cheeks.

Eventually, they let go and Scootaloo climbed onto Rainbow's back before the mare took off into the dark sky above the treetops.

Scootaloo awoke to a dull ache somewhere on her body. Well, all over her body; it felt like she had fallen prone from above onto something really hard, like a rock. And, after a moment of thought and meekly shifting her hooves around, she determined that that was likely the case as they met a cool, rigid surface.

The filly would likely have been content to lie there for longer if she hadn't heard voices. Speaking in low tones somewhere several metres away by the sound of it, they sounded vaguely familiar. Scootaloo cracked her eyes open, expecting darkness; instead, there was a faint green glow emanating from above. As she shifted her head, dust from the floor floated up and into her muzzle. A moment later...

"Ah... ahh... atchoo!" Scootaloo sneezed. The murmuring voices stopped and then she heard hoofsteps.

"Scootaloo?" The voice was unmistakeably Kevin's

"Oh, is she finally awake?" Flight asked as her butter-yellow face came into view. "Hi there."

"Yoooo," Scootaloo groaned. "What... happened? How long was I out for?"

"Can't've been more than ten minutes," Flight replied. "And basically what happened is that those leaves we ran over were fake. Some sort of trap."

"Heh... sorry about that," Kevin said.

"No, it's no problem," Flight replied. "I mean, at least we're away from the bats. Eugh. I do not like those things."

Scootaloo began to push herself up with her hooves, coming to a standing position. Kevin and Flight both stood in front of her, watching her closely. "Er... how come you guys look less beat up that I do?" Scootaloo asked. And indeed they did; both looked as awake and alert as they had been whilst running away from the bats.

"Oh, uh, I was able to levitate myself over to Flight and she flew me down," Kevin explained. "I tried to get you, too, but you were out of range. Thankfully, once we landed, I was able to plant a pillowing spell beneath you on the ground... otherwise, you'd probably have a concussion." He blinked. "You don't have a concussion, right?"

"Right," Scootaloo affirmed. "I'll let you know if anything feels... wonky. But I think I'm doing good right now. I can remember all my friends' names and all that jazz."

"Good, good," Kevin affirmed. "So, what now?"

"As you can see, Scootaloo, we're in a cave. For the past few minutes, we've been talking about what to do since the way we came doesn't look like it's still open... and I don't know if we could even get up there anyway," Flight explained. "So I think our only option is to keep following this cave until we find a way out."

The orange filly looked around at the rugged rock walls that surrounded them, illuminated in only the faint green light of Kevin's horn. "Oh, come on!" Scootaloo exclaimed, furrowing her brow. "A cave?!"

"Scootaloo—" Flight started, but Kevin nudged her, making her stop.

"Just let her have her moment," Kevin murmured.

"I swear, the universe must hate me or something!" Scootaloo continued. "I flew away from Equestria in that stupid ship into the wide, infinite expanse of space, right? Wrong. The ship was cramped and it sure as heck felt like a cave. And just when I was getting excited about coming down onto the Kindred planet? Bam. We crash and I get captured and put in the South Pen—which is basically a cave. And then Grey helped me escape... into a cave. And then I got out of those caves into a city... which was in a cave. And now that I finally got out of the bucking cave city, we've gone and landed ourselves in another cave! Graahhh!" Scootaloo stamped a hoof down hard on the ground, making a loud sound that reverberated off the walls and down the path ahead.

Kevin looked at the hyperventilating filly. "You... okay?"

"Yeah, I'm done," Scootaloo stated flatly through her teeth. "We should probably get walking."

Flight nodded. "Sounds like a plan." She started to trot down the path, and Kevin and Scootaloo quickly joined her. Their hoofsteps reverberated down the tunnel; wherever it went, the walk would probably at least take them a little while.

"So, uh, did you already try your comlink or whatever it's called?" Scootaloo asked. "What do those things even do?"

"They let you call ponies," Flight replied, "and I did try it. That was the first thing I did when we landed, actually—Cotton Fluff wouldn't have liked it, but it would've been better than being stuck down here. Unfortunately, though, we're underground. Which means, in the absence of a signal amplifier like they have in the cities, there is no signal."

"And no signal means you can't call ponies?"

"You're getting it," Flight said with a nod. "Now we've just gotta pray to the alicorns that this tunnel actually leads somewhere and not just to a dead end. Or else we're stuck."

"Ugh, it had better," Scootaloo said. "I haven't flown all the way to some wacko planet just to die in some stupid cave in the middle of nowhere."

"If we do die down here, I just want to tell you girls that it's been a pleasure knowing you," Kevin said out of nowhere.

Flight rolled her eyes. "Argent, Kevin... don't be such a downer."

"Guess I can't help it when we're so far underground," Kevin shot back with a grin. Scootaloo giggled. Flight just rolled her eyes again.

"Please, Argent and Aureate and Aeneus and whoever else is out there... do not let me die down here with these two," she murmured.

"Hey, I heard that!" Kevin exclaimed.

"...I know."