When the ground started rumbling and the faint hornlight of Cotton Fluff went out, Scootaloo found herself alone in the dark, floating on the water. As the waves grew larger and greater in depth, she could hear Flight shout out somewhere a few metres away. The water sloshed around her as Scootaloo tried to pivot her wings to ride along the surface of the water, attempting to push in her direction; however, for some reason she could not see, Flight's yelps grew further and further away as Scootaloo was swept away by the current, towards somewhere unseen but definitely not in the direction of anypony she knew. Trying not to panic, she reached her hooves down through the water to grab ahold of anything she could; yet even though the edges of her hooves scraped against a few rocks below, there was nothing on which she could hold herself steady so she continued to be pulled along, taken wherever the water went.

Scootaloo held her breath and closed her eyes tightly as her head submerged, dirty water getting all in her coat. Once she felt herself emerge, she reached her head up towards the open sky and gasped for air, trying yet failing to stop the dirty water from entering her mouth. As she slid up onto what felt like dry-ish land, she sputtered, spitting up as much as the grainy water as she could. Then, wiping at her eyes with a hoof, she opened them.

Scootaloo wasn't quite sure where she was, though it was definitely still on the edge of the pond; her legs, bent, were partially stuck in the muddy shore, the water lapping at her hind legs though not violently as it had before. There was light—faint light, but definitely light, even though she couldn't tell where it was coming from. Before her lay the trunks of a trees and a few bushes, the same type of darkened forest she had been trudging through.

Groaning, Scootaloo tried to stand. Her knees were a little wobbly, but she was able to pull herself up without too much effort. Somewhere on one of her legs, she could feel a bruise ache but, for the time being, she ignored it. Instead, she looked up.

"Hey," a voice said. It was familiar, but she couldn't immediately see where it was coming from. Then, she looked down and spotted it—a medium-sized black bat that stood in front of her on the ground, a silver reflective star on its face. Despite its leathery skin, the bat gave off a silverly luminescence, almost seeming to glow just straight from its being.

"H-hey," Scootaloo said weakly. "Long time no see, huh."

"Mmm, yes. Apologies," the bat said with a nod. "I had to duck out at the last moment. But I'm here now. Please, come with me." The creature turned and began to waddle away.

Frowning, Scootaloo lifted weary hoof after weary hoof to make tracks in the mud after the creature as it ducked into a bush.