AN: I have to admit, i'm a little nervous to submit this one. my reasoning is simply that i have written this chapter 4 different times, each one in a different way. what you'll see below is a hybrid between 3 and 4. Also, this chapter would have been here about a week ago, but i have had a few... technical difficulties, including my WiFi going down, a computer virus, and Discord. But it's here now so, have fun.
“Wake up, little filly. It’s late, and you need a bath…”
Colors filled her vision as she revealed her purple eyes to the rest of the world. Nurse Redheart had taken a position next to her and was gently shaking the only clean part on Scootaloo’s body.
“Huh? Where… oh.”
Memories of the past day refilled her head, and she closed her eyes against the tears that were bound to follow. Finding herself shivering from cold this time, she huddled her body together, shrinking to try to warm up. A cold sticky substance, located when she crossed her forelegs, greeted her, and Scootaloo realized that she was still covered in sap from the crash through the branches. She had only taken a minor blow, sliding nearly harmlessly through the needles. Though they poked her and coated her in their liquid glue, they did no real damage, and therefor Scootaloo had completely forgotten she had fallen at all. Everything had been about Pyrus…
Why, though? Why is it him that concerns me? I know for sure I’d have worried a lot more about the sap had it been somepony else… so why Pyrus?
The thought baffled her thoroughly, and she shook her head to attempt to clear her head. The nurse recoiled at the sudden movement, and then let out an audible harrumph.
“Honestly, did you really need to go and do that? Now I have sap on my hoof…”
“Sorry, Nurse Redheart, I really didn’t mean to…”
“It’s fine… I just will have to wash my hooves again. Speaking of which,” she eyed Scootaloo’s sticky fur with a look that bordered on malice, “you could really use a bath. There’s a tub in the back, if you need it. I’ll be just a minute and I can bring you a towel or some rags.”
“Thanks, a towel will be fine. And thank you for being so nice to me.” She spoke to the kind-hearted nurse, then added under her breath “Why you’d want to be nice to a monster like me is a mystery though…”
“What was that, Little One?”
“Nothing” Replied Scootaloo, almost too quickly.
“Well, just call me if you need anything more. I’ll be looking after some other patients.”
“Thanks again” she called to Redheart as she clacked down the hall.
______________
Clean and dry, Scootaloo felt just a little better. Pushing through the door and across the room to her pillow on the ground, she finally brought herself to examine Pyrus thoroughly. Starting at the bottom half, she examined the tight bandage that adorned his left leg. It seemed he had hit his entire left side pretty hard, as bruises dotted his flank, turning the usually crisp-looking parchment of his cutie mark a sickly greenish-purple color. Moving up, she saw that other than a few bruises, his body seemed mostly fine.
That is, until her eyes fell upon the large white bandage that wrapped around his head.
Her blood suddenly ran cold for a heartbeat as she looked at his face. It was mostly fine, except for one large black eye, swelling a bit, and some scrapes covered his right cheek. The worst part, however, was his mane. As Scootaloo’s eyes fell upon it, she found something that disturbed her majorly.
The once orange and black mane was now purely a slick black color. A single lock of orange hair swam in an ocean of sleek darkness. The light glinted off of his mane, and she wondered how exactly his mane even worked. She had thought that he had just dyed it or something, and she was certain he had also had shown up that afternoon with his mane about half and half, striped almost tiger like. But now it had changed…
Curious, and more than a little freaked out, she examined it, ran a hoof through it, and even at one point considered licking it (though after some forethought decided it would be a bad idea to do so). I’ll… I’ll ask him when he wakes up. if he wakes up… In a flash of thought, she was miserable again. An odd feeling wept out of her heart and into the rest of her body, a feeling of protectiveness and a surprising need to be right by his side.
Filling out this need, she sat, her front hooves resting on the bedside. Feeling slightly silly, at least for her current state, she stood guard over him, watching him and their surroundings to protect him. She didn’t know what she was protecting him from, and when she asked herself she rapidly shoved the question out of her mind. Looking around and deciding her surroundings were safe, she looked back down to his face.
Nothing had changed.
Sighing in disappointment and failure, Scootaloo walked back and plopped down on her pillow again, and fell quickly into dreams once more.
_________________
Pyrus’s consciousness had begun to slowly fade in and out in the hospital. He remembered seeing a blurry image of a brown unicorn with a white coat examining a clipboard, and then his vision had faded again. Another blur passed by where he was being wheeled into a cozy room, and that scene faded away as well. Finally he saw a much less blurred image of a brown-orange pegasus cry herself to sleep, and he latched onto it. Fighting, he pulled with all his energy to regain his consciousness and comfort the crying form. She was obviously upset and he wanted so much to help her. A wonderful feeling of loss and disappointment flooded him as his grip slipped and the image was ripped from his thoughts.
Floating along, Pyrus’s subconscious prepared, crouched and waiting for the next blur to pass by. Color soon hazed into his vision, and his subconscious sprung forward and burst into the image, grabbing hold of what little control of Pyrus’s body it could get. Fighting with all its strength, it heaved his left eyelid upward so to try to wake Pyrus up.
Long story short- it worked.
Pyrus felt himself slip back into the real world. A splitting headache and throbbing leg welcomed him back. Recoiling, he shut his eyes tight against the colors, but the deed had been done. He was awake, once and for all.
Well, if I have to be awake, I might as well see where the hay I am…
Plan set out, he slowly opened his left eyelid, and halfway opened his bruised right one. White sheets were below him, and more white bandaged his left leg, the source of the throbbing. Monitors beeped and clicked away at each other next to him, carrying out some conversation Pyrus didn’t even try to understand. Moving on to the walls, also a stark white, he searched for something. Anything that ISN’T white or beeping!
Looking on the other side of the room, he found something. Something whose face was streaked in tears. Something who very un-peacefully slept, curled up against herself.
Something named…
“Scootaloo?”