//------------------------------//
// Powerless 
// Story: The Life of a Broken Pegasus 
// by TimeLord_Whooves 
//------------------------------//

Scootaloo looked up in confusion, there was crying coming from the corner of her room.  She couldn't see who it was, it was too dark in her room so she got up out of her bed to investigate who it was.  Rainbow Dash looked up when Scootaloo had put her hoof on the crying pony's shoulder.  Rainbow jumped up and pulled Scootaloo into a tight hug and cried into her mane.
"Rainbow, what's the matter?" she asked, shocked at Rainbow's sudden movement.
"I-I'm just s-so h-h-happy." she said, but she didn't sound happy at all.  Her tone was more of despair.
"About what?" Scootaloo asked tentatively.
Rainbow Dash suddenly let her go, walked over to the door and opened it slowly.  Cloudwhisp was standing there, smiling brightly at Scootaloo.
"Cloudwhisp?!" Scootaloo said in confusion.  "What are you doing here, at this time of night too?"
Cloudwhisp gave her a sad look.  "Don't you remember?  What today is?" he asked concernedly.
"Scootaloo, how could you forget such an important day?" Rainbow Dash said indignantly.
"What's so important about today, and why are you in my room?" Scootaloo asked, turning her head between the two, becoming more confused by the second.
"Honey..."
"Sis..."
"It's your wedding day." they said together.
"Wedding?!" Scootaloo shouted.  "With who?!"
"With Princess Luna of course." they said as Luna walked into the room.
"Oh, dear." Luna said.  "What did I just walk in on?"
"I have no clue." Scootaloo said, her heart beating rapidly, not sure if this was part of the dream or the real Luna come to help.  "You are the real Princess Luna right?  You can stop this dream?"
In answer Luna nodded and her horn began to glow.  "You will have no memory of this dream so worry not."
Scootaloo's world went black and she curled up into a small orange ball.

Scootaloo woke up with a start.  Breathing heavily, she looked around her room, it was empty.  Scootaloo shook her head, unsure as to why she had woken up with a feeling of dread.
She got up and walked out into the hallway to see if Rainbow Dash was awake yet.  There was no sound coming from the kitchen so she listened at Rainbow's door.  A slow rumbling snore was coming from inside.  Scootaloo walked down into the kitchen and made herself some breakfast then went for a walk.
She stepped out to find that it was still a little dark outside, the sun was barely starting to rise.  A light morning mist hung in the air making it cool and damp, Scootaloo shivered as she began making her way to the park.  It was empty, being so early in the morning.  Scootaloo walked over to a tall tree and attempted to climb it.  It had been one of her favorite places to sit and watch the world and think, when she was able to fly, it was the closest one to the ground and so the easiest to get to without flying.
After about ten minutes of trying and failing to get to the lower branches of the tree, Scootaloo gave up and sat on the ground next to it.  She found it harder to think without a perch to watch without being seen.  She sighed and looked over at the rising sun, before it began to hurt her eyes, then she looked straight up at the sky above her.  It looked so beautiful with it's scattered clouds and cool blue softness, some stars were still out and they only added to the beauty.  Scootaloo stretched out her wings in longing, she wanted to fly into that beautiful sky so badly.  She felt the scars on her wings and quickly folded them close to her body.  She looked back at them sadly then back into the slowly lightening sky, tears falling from her eyes.
She hadn't realized she was being watched, Cloudwhisp had saw her walking down the street towards the park and so he followed her here and watched her with sorrow.  He had no idea what it felt like to suddenly not be able to fly and so had no way to relate to her.  All he wanted was to find some way to comfort her, any way at all.  He looked up into the sky and saw the white alicorn that was Princess Celestia flying overhead towards Canterlot.  An idea struck him, he flew up as fast as he could after her.
"Princess Celestia!" he called after her, not caring as to why the princess was so far away from Canterlot by herself.  "Princess wait!"
Celestia stopped and hovered waiting for him to catch up.  "Yes?  What is it young one?" she asked as he caught up to her.
He tried to bow in midair and accidentally started to dive, she waited for him to correct himself and reach her height again.  "Please, Princess, I know that there's a proper way to do this and it's not politically correct to just suddenly ask something like this of a Princess, but..." he paused to catch his breath.  "You see my friend down there crying?" he asked pointing at Scootaloo who was now curled up in a ball beneath the tree.
She nodded and he continued.  "Well, she can't fly anymore, she got hit by lightning a while ago and lost the use of her wings.  I was wondering if there was anything you could do to make her able to fly again." he finished with a sad expression.
Celestia looked down at Scootaloo for a second.  "I know some healing magic, do you know how long ago it was that she was struck by lightning?" she asked, considering what to do.
"It happened a little over a year ago now." he replied.
"Well, I'm afraid, it's been too long.  If had been within the month then I could have done something about it but if it's been this long and they haven't healed then I'm afraid healing magic wont help." she said sadly, turning to look at Cloudwhisp again.
His face had dropped, tears streaming from his eyes.  Celestia looked at him sadly before continuing towards Canterlot.  'What good was a Sun Goddess if she can't heal a pair of messed up wings.' he thought.
His wing cramped and he plummeted for a second, he managed to stabilize himself.  'Maybe she could hear his thoughts?' he thought as he shot the princess a worried look.  As if to answer she flew up and swooped down sharply.  He watched her fly out of sight with a frightened look before floating gently down to the ground.  When he looked over to where Scootaloo had been not long before, he saw and empty patch of grass next to the tree.  He looked down in disappointment and slowly ambled home.

***

Rainbow Dash was making breakfast when Scootaloo walked in.  Rainbow stopped cooking, flew into the hallway, and gave Scootaloo a tight hug before saying, "I was worried about you."
"Sis, you know I always go to the park early in the morning on weekends." Scootaloo said, returning the hug.
"I know, it's just that I'm usually up before you leave." Rainbow said.
They sat down to eat their breakfast, Scootaloo didn't eat much having eaten before she left.  When they had finished, they went out for a walk together.