Scootaloo blinked through the fuzzy haze in her brain. Lights... Her eyes slid around incomprehensive of the chaos around her. So many lights...
"She's coming around!"
"Knock her out! Nurse! Morphine!"
Lights...moving... Scootaloo's stomach soured and churned. I'm going to throw up...stupid lights!
"Move the other two to room 'B'! Get this one to the foaliatrics wing! Tell them she has a concussion! Scan her spine, watch for the leg twitching!"
"Doctor! We can't stop the bleeding over here!"
"Press harder, get the packs outa the fridge! We need I.V.'s over here."
Scootaloo turned her head to the side. Did I? I think I threw up...not sure.
"Watch the floor! Its slippery!"
Feels better...stupid lights...
Another voice. "Doctor! Somepony tourniquet the leg on this one!"
"Stupid! Amateuristic! Don't touch it, you'll split the artery if you take it off too quick! If we end up amputating, Luna damn my dreams, it won't be my balls on the line!"
Who's bleeding? Scootaloo looked up, craning her neck. "Balls? Line? Is it recess? I gotta line up..."
A face appeared in her vision, a red cross on her nurse hat. "Nonono, sweetheart, just lay back. You'll be fine. We will take care of your mommy and Rainbow Dash." Scootaloo's head fell back. A stinging sensation pierced her foreleg, followed by a mild burning through her veins. "Trust us...it's okay...everything will be fine..." The voice trailed off.
Soo...bright...lights... Scootaloo's world faded mercifully dark.
Beeping... Scootaloo lay in a hospital bed gradually awaking from a long slumber. Eyelids slid open slowly as she took in a vaguely familiar ceiling. The room was quiet; Scootaloo's breathing sounded loud and hollow in her ears. Why is there beeps? Her focus slid from the ceiling to the window. Dark... She breathed for a moment, focusing on the sound of her breath to break the haze that clung thickly to her reality. Why am I here? The beeping brought me here...I need to find the beeping... The lights in the room were dim. An eerie green glow from the heart monitor illuminated the bed. It emitted a constant -grrnn- as it regulated a feed of saline and painkillers through a long I.V. tube attached to Scootaloo's foreleg. Beeper...I found the beeper... Scootaloo giggled. "I s'ound you..." She slurred.
Then it dawned on Scootaloo, I don't know this beeper! She looked sideways at the device -babeep-beep, grrrnnn, babeep-beep-. Her muzzle wrinkled into a jittery toothy frown. -babeep-beep- Her breathing increased. A clock on the wall ticked the time by. -Tic, tic, tic- Her eyes slid down to the I.V. in her foreleg and she froze. It's touching me... -Grrrrnnn- She held her breath, beads of sweat building up on her concerned brow. -Babeep-beep, tic, tic, babeep-beep, grrrrnnnn- She swallowed, her dry throat sticking together and slowly peeling apart adding to the discomfort. -Grrrrnnnnn- She let out a staccato burst of breath, and quickly sucked it back in as tears built up in the corner of her eyes. -Babeep-beep, grrrrnnnn- Go away! She screamed in her mind as shivers ran up and down her limbs. -Grrrrnnnn- Tears streamed down her cheeks Why won't you leave me alone! -Tic, tic, tic, babeep, Grrrrnnnn-
Scootaloo mouthed out a silent scream... Dasshh! Mommyy!!
Nurse Redheart made her rounds through the foaliatrics wing. She yawned, not quite yet used to the nightshift. Just one more room. Then I can catch a nap before the next round... Her thoughts trailed off as she opened the door to Scootaloo's room. Upon entering she looked up lazily, and stopped dead in her tracks.
Scootaloo stared at Nurse Redheart through a drug induced terror as she reached a hoof out begging for salvation. The mare bolted to the side of the bed and wrapped her forelegs around the little filly. "Shhh...sweetheart it's alright...shhh..." She rocked Scootaloo back and forth, trying in vain to calm the poor filly down as she quivered uncontrollably in the nurse's embrace.
Finally, released from her tension, sounds burst from Scootaloo's lungs in halting chaotic breaths. "Aiiunngg...Dash...e...nng!" She struggled against hyperventilation to force breath into her lungs. "Nng...nngg...Mmm...aaii...ungg...Mo...ung...mom...e...ee!" After a long stint of fruitless minutes trying to calm the hysterical filly, Nurse Redheart reluctantly reached over and pressed a button on the heart monitor. A heavy dose of painkiller flooded through Scootaloo, and the world once again went mercifully dark.
Gritting her teeth, the nurse held the poor filly long after the death-grip around her neck went limp. With a heavy sigh she gingerly placed Scootaloo's head on the pillow, wiped away both their tears, and tucked in the blankets. "Hopefully you won't remember that sweetie." She grabbed the chart at the bottom of the bed and flipped through the pages. This is her second week here. Coma for nine days already!? Wow, time fly's. Concussed swelling around the brain...should be good to go by now. She thought back to the in-patient records. Rainbow Dash and Donnybrook are out of I.C.U. Transferred yesterday. Dash is still in a drug induced coma, but I can move her out, and put Scootaloo with her mother instead. She glanced over at the filly, who was sleeping peacefully. That's best, wouldn't want another episode like that. She yawned and clopped towards the door. Poor thing, she's been through enough...
Scootaloo's eyes fluttered as she fought the urge to shut out the blinding daylight and view who was holding her hoof. She settled for squinting, slowly opening her eyes letting the blurriness re-adjust as shapes gradually took form. She could make out a pony who vaguely looked like her mother, focused for a moment, and then, suddenly, the pony looked a lot like her mother. "Mom?"
"Good morning Cheeriloo." Donnybrook grated in a deep whisper. She was still feeling hung over, and her body ached even through the pain killers. "Have any good dreams?"
"No, just this one," Scootaloo smiled.
Her mother chuckled gently as she winced from the movement. "Sorry, looloo, but you're very awake." Scootaloo blushed, nopony had called her that since she was four. Donny took notice and grinned. "Thought that'd get you..."
"Moommm..." Scootaloo wined and stuck her tongue out.
"Grrr... Im'a bite it off!" Donny chuckled lightly as Scootaloo giggled.
"If you could move!" She stuck it out further and waggled it around. Donny winced from the pain of her laughter. Scootaloo decided to calm down. "What happened out there?"
Donny smiled sadly. "Dash and I had a friendly conversation, and she taught your mother a little lesson. That's all."
Scootaloo glared at her dubiously. "Little? Friendly?" Her mind reeled with the possibilities. "So, then what happens if you two get into a real fight?"
Donny's features grew grim. "Well if I actually had my gear, and if Rainbow Dash was fully trained." She paused, frowning. "We would have leveled Ponyville, burned down the Everfree, and possibly damaged Canterlot..." She smiled soothingly at Scootaloo's nervous glare. "Don't worry about it. Iv'e already made up my mind..." She looked past her daughter to Dash laying in the bed behind her. "...I don't think I could bring myself to ever hit her again...well..." She averted her eyes sheepishly. "...unless she was up to have some fun...or maybe if we were both drunk and in a good mood..."
Scootaloo wondered at the look in her mother's eyes, too early in her years to place it, but found it calming and reassuring. She turned to look at Dash. "Dash?" No movement. "She sleeps so light, sometimes it's hard not to wake her up." She mumbled wistfully. "Dash!" Weird...
"She will wake up soon. Let her sleep for awhile longer." Donnybrook smiled as she recalled the nurses coming in to roll Dash out, and how she had nearly chewed their heads off. "Don't worry Looloo, I made sure she'll be right next to you when she wakes up." She gingerly ran her hoof through Scootaloo's mane. "You'll be the first pony she sees." She smiled, "She'll like that." Her hoof fell to the bed as her voice trailed off.
Scootaloo grinned, "Thanks mom..." She turned, but cut her words off.
Her mother lay peacefully, with her eyes closed. "Looloo, I'm so sorry..." She whispered weakly.
"For what?" Scootaloo whispered back, finding her Moms hoof with her own.
"For never saying how much I love you..." Exhausted from the conversation, Donnybrook drifted off, snoring softly, missing the little filly breakdown happening at the end of her hoof.
Scootaloo glanced over as Dash stirred with a groan. She positioned herself at the edge of the bed excitedly waiting for Dash's eyes to open for the first time. She reached over and sandwiched Dash's hoof between hers. Dash blinked in the dim lighting of the room. Night, having fallen hours ago, cast it's shadows in defiance of the meager ceiling lights and dim green glows of the heart monitors. She struggled to make out the shapes surrounding her, and decided to focus on the one holding her hoof.
"Scootaloo?" Dash murmured.
"Hay Dash! Good..."
"SSHH..." Dash winced. "Tone down the crazy..." Dash rubbed a tender hoof on her temple.
"Sorry..." Scootaloo whispered gently, the excitement squeaking through. "How do you feel?"
"Like somepony back-hoofed me with a planet." She groaned.
"That bad huh?"
"Nah, it's cool." Dash threw out a weak snicker. "You should see the planet."
Scootaloo giggled. "I did. I hear they are still filling in the crater you smashed into its face." They shared a fit of painful snickers and muted giggles.
Donny shifted, wincing in her sleep, as she worked around the bed to find the least painful position. Scootaloo and Dash held their breath, just two sisters trying not to get caught giggling it up too late after bedtime. Donny's shifting eventually ended with her facing away towards the door as she snored softly into her pillow. Scootaloo sighed in relief and turned back to Dash.
She startled, Dash was staring intently at her. "W-what?"
Dash reached for the filly, but her muscles nipped and complained painfully. "I can't move Squee-chi." Dash grinned as Scootaloo blushed at the nickname without complaint, and slowly beckoned the filly to her.
"Yeah, well..." Her eyes dodged to the side. "...it kinda happens when you pick fights with planets."
Dash noticed how easily Scootaloo was moving around. "Squee-chi." Dash's eyes wavered as she redoubled her efforts and reached for Scootaloo who was just out of hoof shot. "I need to tell you something..."
Scootaloo picked up on the sincerity in Dash's voice. "I'm listening."
Dash's eyes flitted between Donny and the closed door. She patted the bed in front of her. Scootaloo readjusted her I.V.'s and pulled herself over onto the bed next to Dash. "Whats up?!"
"Shhh," Dash scolded as her eyes flicked up to Donny, and reassured the door wasn't about to burst open.
Her eyes slid down to meet Scootaloo's straight on. The little filly froze, her heart sped up, pounding in her ears, as Dash inched slowly, painstakingly closer. Dash's breath played along the finer fur of Scoots muzzle, but the filly resisted giggling at the tickles, and failed to find her own breath. Dash leaned in, closed her eyes, and gingerly pressed her lips against Scootaloo's, rolling the kiss into a long loving nuzzle. Scootaloo's heart exploded, an intense dizziness settling over her mind as she lost focus behind a wall of tears. Dash pulled her closer into a shaky, but gentle hug as the filly's happy fluttering sobs matted her fur. With the tip of her muzzle to the hairs around Scoot's ear she whispered ever so lightly. "I love you, most precious pony of my heart. More than my adventures, and the wings that carry me to them." The floodgates of Scoot's pain and stress shattered, her muffled wailing shaking Dash to her core.
A Daring Doo quote...Donny's grin was ear to ear, but curved down painfully at the corners. Show off... She closed her eyes, blocking out the scene reflecting back at her from the mirror on the wall as tears streamed onto her pillow. Scootaloo's muffled cry's stabbed through her heart painfully. How did you hide so much pain. When were you so desperate for love? Donny choked back sobs of her own as her heart threatened to explode out of her lungs. No...I was just blind and callous. How could I do this to you? She bit down hard on her tongue, her eyes squeezed shut, trying in vain to overpower the emotions tearing through her. I'll say it to you properly next time...mommy promises.
To be continued... HERE!