Slowly, purple eyes cracked open, allowing small slivers of bright light to slip through which caused a groan to escape the body of the small filly.
"Oh, you're awake, that’s good" A somewhat musical voice spoke up from the side of Scootaloo, which turned out to be a rather tall yet skinny pale grey earth pony with a green spiral for a cutiemark who stood with an odd glean in her green eyes, framed by a deep red mane, "I'm Nurse Foresight, your nurse and you've been asleep for quite a while, gave us quite the scare" The smile she sent Scootaloo didn't quite reach her eyes.
"W-what happened?" Scootaloo couldn't stop the question escaping her, sleep and medicine still clouding her mind.
"Oh, don't you worry, I’m sure your friends are worried sick about you, how about I go get them hm?"
"Wait! I need you to answer my question!" The tall mare didn't even hesitate as she left the room, leaving Scootaloo all to herself, "Stupid nurses...ignoring the ponies they're caring for" Scootaloo couldn't help but grumble, eyes roaming around the room, finding balloons and many get well soon cards littering the small table which stood to the side of her bed.
"What did happen...last thing I remember was-" The images of trees and pain-pain-PAIN engulfed her mind, "ARGH" Scootaloo clutched at her head, memories assaulting her as she shook slightly in her bed, though it didn't last long as the pain quickly dulled, and she opened her eyes once more.
"The forest..." Suddenly, the door to the room slammed open to reveal two fillies stood with wide eyes staring into the room.
"SCOOTALOO" Applebloom and Sweetie Belle shouted, tears unshed shining in their eyes as they sprinted to the side of Scootaloo's bed, Applejack and Rarity walking into the room at a more sedated pace, unease on both of their faces.
"O-oh hey girls, how have you been?" Scootaloo could only ask, confusion written on her face.
"How have WE been? You're the one who’s been asleep for the past two days!"
"Wait, really?" Scootaloo stared at the blank faces of her two friends, hoping to see a hint of a joke, “Why am I even in the hospital what happened?" When that was said Applejack took a step forward, worry in her eyes.
"Scootaloo, do yah remember anything?" The mares voice was calm and kind, with nowhere as much strength as it usually does.
"Of course not! If I did would I be asking what happened?" Scootaloo was starting to panic now," Why is everypony being so down and not telling me anything!"
"Scootaloo, darling?" Rarity slowly walked forward towards the bed, eyes flickering to Scootaloo but not staying for long, quickly jumping away," Don't panic but could you please check your wing"
With a frown, Scootaloo looked over her left shoulder, seeing the, albeit small but healthy orange featured wing fluttering slightly.
"The-the other one darling..." With an eyebrow raised at the stutter, Scootaloo complied, twirling her head around to her right side, expecting to see the feathers of her other wing but finding nothing. Eyes widening, she continued to turn her head, hoping and wishing to see it simple bandaged to her side, but finding nothing but a bandaged bump way too small to be a whole wing, even one of hers.
"From what we heard, the manticore that did that to yah go what it shoulda, ahm sorry but they couldn't do anything for yah wing sugarcane, it wasn't fair for you, but least you're alive" Applejack continued, hiding her eyes with her hat, "The one who saved yah said he wanted to be here but he's kinda busy at the moment, so we're here"
"...Saved?" Scootaloo almost whimpered.
"Yeah!" Sweetie Belle said loudly, a wide smile on her face, "You shoulda seen him, he ran in all like 'RAH' then beat up the manticore and it was so amazing yet scary cause he was big and strong we thought we were done for the-" Scootaloo wasn't listening, she was simple staring at nothing, mind blank with horror as realisation hit.
"Girls, we should go...give Scootaloo some time to herself"
"But why? She's only just woke up!"
"She needs time to adjust sugarcane, we should leave her be" The protests of the two fillies were unheard as they were ushered out of the room, Applejacks eyes lingering on the frozen filly on the bed.
"Ahm sorry" With that said, the orange mare closed the door with a slight click.
Scootaloo didn't say anything as other ponies came to visit her, all of them giving her varying forms of pity, yet pity all the same, however not a single one of them was the one she wanted to visit her, she was waiting for her hero to come in, tell her it’s all alright and that nothing was going to change, to tell her she was gunna help her, but as the hours flew by Scootaloo slowly lost hope.
A faint knock interrupted her train of though and the door opened to reveal the mare that she'd been hoping would be there when she awoke.
"Rainbow Dash..."
The named mare's head shot up, pink eyes locking onto Scootaloo as she walked to stand at the side of her bed.
"Scoots, I'm...I'm so so sorry, I should have been there, I wish I could have stopped that thing before...before you got hurt," tears slowly slid down the cyan mare’s face as she lowered her head onto the sheets of the bed, "Please forgive me..."
"Why...?"
Rainbow raised her head, her eyes meeting Scootaloo's as the filly bared her teeth in rage with tears pouring down her own face.
"WHY ARE YOU GIVING UP ON ME? WHY IS EVERYPONY THE SAME, I THOUGHT YOU WOULD BE DIFFERENT AND STILL BELIEVE IN ME BUT I'M WRONG AREN'T I? YOU THINK I'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO FLY DON'T YOU" Scootaloo shouted, all her pent-up rage from the day escaping her as she raged to the pony that she had believed in.
"WELL HOW COULD YOU EVER LEARN HOW TO FLY WITH ONLY ONE WING?" Rainbow Dash shouted back, face filled with anger before shock overcame her as she realised what she had said, "Scootaloo I am so sorry, I shouldn't have sa-"
"Get out" Rainbow Dash's eyes widened as she heard the quiet whisper.
"W-what?"
"I said GET OUT GET OUT I DON'T WANT TO LOOK AT YOU" Scootaloo started to rage, throwing the cards and small candies which sat at her side at the rainbow maned mare,"IM NOT INVALID OR ANYTHING I'LL LEARN TO FLY I DON'T NEED NOPONIES HELP NOW GET OUT!" Rainbow Dash quickly rushed out the room, leaving Scootaloo alone breathing heavily staring at where the pegasus had previously been. A slight whimper escaped the filly before she broke down sobbing, curling up on her bed and shaking, alone and betrayed.
It was late, that was all Scootaloo knew as she stares out the window into the night sky, her eyes red and swollen from tears that no longer dropped , nopony else had come to visit her but she was fine with that.
"You ponies are pathetic, crying when things don't go your way" Scootaloo jumped, twirling around to face the darkened side of the room, looking for the pony that spoke in the deep growling tones, but all that she saw was two slitted red eyes shining from the darkness.
"W-who are you?"
"Who am I?" The red eyes slowly moved forward and from the darkness a red furred canine face was revealed to Scootaloo, along with a large, thin body and what looked like 9 bushy long tails swirling around, "I am Kurama, the Nine Tailed Fox, and I'm the reason you're alive at this very moment" Kurama puffed up, a proud look on his face which was quickly wiped away when a small box of hard boiled sweets smacked him in the face, with a snarl, he glared at the filly who was no longer looking at him.
"Go away, you're gunna be just like all the others, apologising and pitying me...But I don't need it, I'll still learn to fly, even if it kills me" The filly's declaration struck a chord in Kurama as he stared wide eyed, before huffing and making his way to sit at the side of Scootaloo, also staring out the window.
"Many, many years ago, a great monster, bigger than the tallest mountains attacked a village, this monster was so great and fierce, so full of rage, none could even hope to slow it down, yet alone stop it. None but the young leader of the village, for you see, he that night had just become a father, and he wanted his child to grow up in the same village he had, so he went to fight the beast, but he knew he could not kill it, so he took the next best option, he sacrificed his life to seal it inside his new-born child, the only one who could survive to have it sealed inside them. He did this with a smile, knowing the child would still have its mother to love and care for it, but the beast in its last moments before it was sealed attempted to kill the child, flinging one of its razor-sharp claws at it. The father, not wanting his child to die, flung himself in front of the claw," Scootaloo, who had been listening, enraptured by the fox's story, gasped quietly, “It would not of been enough to stop the beast, however the mother, knowing her child would die, flung herself in front as well and the two parents stopped the claw from reaching their child. Now knowing the child would have to live without knowing the true extent of its parent's love, they both said their goodbyes as the sealing took effect, transforming the beast into a huge cloud of pure energy and forcing it inside the body of the babe as its parents faded from this life," Kurama breathed in deeply, licking his dry lips as he continued, "The child would grow up being hated by the village his father loved, none of them knowing who the child was apart from the fact that he held the beast that had slaughtered loved ones not long before, yet the child still swore he would be the leader of the village and be loved by all . Anything that child had, he had to work for, nothing was given to him. So, as he got older, he made a friend, a child who had everything at one point, but had his family torn from him by his elder brother, and so, with rage and vengeance on his mind, the friend wanted power, following a traitor of the village who had promised him everlasting power and leaving his friend behind, but not without first nearly killing him"
"Why are you telling me this?" Scootaloo couldn't help but interrupt, but Kurama quickly wacked her lightly on the head with a tail.
"Hush child, I am not done," Kurama shook his head as he turned back to the night sky, “The boy left his village, training to become stronger than ever, he'd need it as he was being hunting for the beast which laid inside him, and so years went by, he made new friends and met old ones once more, but then his home village was attacked by the leader of the group that was hunting him, and so he went back, hoping he was strong enough to defeat the man, but he wasn't, the man killed his old teacher and nearly killed one of his friends, so he gave into the rage of the beast that was inside him and attacked the man viciously, but before the beast could escape fully the failsafe the father put inside the seal activated, summoning a small portion of the man back to the world of the living, to finally see his son and reseal the beast, in the end the man was moved by the boy who had forgiven him despite all he had did, and so the man sacrificed his life and used an ability to bring back all he had killed from the dead at the price of his own life. Then, the boy was herald as a hero by the people of his village, for their home may be destroyed, but their spirits had prevailed."
Kurama turned to look at the filly by his side, "But that was not the end, for it turns out that man had simply been a puppet for the true leader, so the boy, now growing up to be a man, wanted peace between all the villages to help defeat the true leader, but for that to happen he needed peace within himself...and the beast sealed within, so he went into the seal to try and get the beings help, but the being would not relent in its hatred of all things as it accepted actions over words, and so when the time came, the man helped save one of the beasts siblings from the leader's control and in the end made the beast realise that it could trust once again in the world, so it gave the man its power, but didn't take over, instead it worked with him. It was then, the man’s friend from his childhood came back to help, having found out his brother was not to blame for the death of his family and so they defeated the true leader together," Kurama sweat dropped, "And then again defeated the true true leader behind the true leader"
"Wait what?" Scootaloo spluttered, confused at the phrasing Kurama had.
"Never mind it, after that, the man was happy, he had saved the world and had his best friend back...but it was not to last, for the people who were behind the deaths of his family was the leader of his village, and so he decided all the leaders must die, but the man would not have that, so they fought, long and hard, until it came to the final blow which destroyed one arm from each combatant, in the end...it was a draw, yet to the man, he had won, and even with his missing arm, he became the leader of his village and one of the strongest beings in the world, but also one of the nicest"
Scootaloo stared at the fox, confusion in her purple eyes.
"What...what was the whole point of that? I mean, it was an interesting story, but it doesn't make sense!"
"Oh, it doesn't make sense?" Kurama stood, a sharp grin on his face, "You use words and say that even without your wing you'll learn to fly but all you've been doing is sitting there crying, the man in the story didn't make it to where he was by himself, he was pushed forward by his friends, pushed away from just saying he'd be the leader to doing something about it, so instead of shouting and screaming at everyone that comes in use them to your advantage, you want to fly then get working on it, you aren't going to be given some magical gift, you'll need sweat, tears and blood to achieve your dream child," Kurama eyes glowed an eerie red as he stared down the small filly, "Or are you going to prove me right that you're pathetic?"
Scootaloo stood with her mouth agape, meeting the gaze of the being that had just thrown her world upside down, “That....that story isn't just a story is it? It actually happened and...and...you're the-" The smile on Kurama's face widening stopped what she was going to say originally before a look of determination overcame her.
"I'll do it, I'll prove to you and everypony else I will be able to fly, no matter what, I won't just be empty words"
"Good, now, young children like yourself should be asleep now," A long slender tail lifted her into the bed as Kurama made to leave the room," And remember this...I was never here, and you never heard that story from me"
"Okay, thank you Mr Kurama, for everything" Scootaloo said softly as her eyes slowly drifted closed.
Kurama simply huffed as he left the room, closing the door quietly behind him.
"So, there is something...new in Ponyville, something more powerful than even the Elements of Harmony"
"Yes, it matches the stories which we all know, a primordial being of rage and hatred with nine tails"
"Hm...and do they know what exactly they have in their village"
"It doesn't seem like it"
The black being turned its head, staring at the walls of her home, before looking at her hoof, slitted eyes tracing the cracks in the armour plating that was now a part of her injured form.
"You should get back to your post, we are all injured, many of us dying, it’s odd...we are the only beings that have the knowledge of how to maybe defeat such a beast, yet we are close to extinction, so such knowledge will soon be lost..."
"Have hope my queen, some of us will survive" with that said, the tall and thin changeling turned away, flicking her red tinted mane out of her green eyes which quickly flashed yellow as she left the injured Queen of Changelings.
"I have the Foresight which tells me this"