//------------------------------// // Chapter 1; New Beginnings // Story: The World Keeps Turning // by Dasponi //------------------------------// The few weeks after Scootaloo left the hospital were tough on her. Not because her dad had been arrested and imprisoned, that barely affected her, but because she wasn't able to even move her wings. She had to rely on Star Shine for rides for a while as Rainbow Dash was still sore and couldn't handle unnecessary weight on her body. The hospital deemed Scootaloo unnecessary weight even if Rainbow Dash disagreed. Scootaloo's wings were fastened securely to her body so she couldn't even move them accidentally. It was tough but thanks to Rainbow Dash and Star Shine she was able to get through those first few weeks. Star Shine ferried her too and from school with Rainbow Dash and helped her out when she needed it. School was quite an adjustment for her. Now the whole town knew everything about her everypony was a lot nicer to her at school. They expressed their sympathies about what Diamond Tiara had done to her and asked her all about what happened with her dad. Kids will always be curious. Something like what had happened to her was bound to make the news as much as they didn't want it to. Scootaloo was left feeling a little uncomfortable by all the sympathy and attention she was getting. She mostly kept to herself outside of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. She also took a lot of it as being pity and being pitied was the one thing she never wanted. It was one of the main reasons that she just hadn't told ponies the truth before Diamond Tiara had a chance to do it. With Diamond Tiara herself gone, Silver Spoon became a lot nicer too. She expressed how she felt about what Diamond Tiara was doing and that she had no idea how far Diamond Tiara would go. Diamond Tiara had refused to let her in on what was happening because of her reluctance. It was a bit of a slow process but she integrated with the rest of the school and made other friends. She was actually quite likeable. She just had a lot of bad influences with Diamond Tiara. The Cutie Mark Crusaders tried to treat Scootaloo just the same as they always had. They saw how uncomfortable Scootaloo had been because of the reaction to her. They asked her what had happened and after she told them, and answered their questions, they let her be. They were surprised that even after all of that Scootaloo still didn't have her Cutie Mark. Scootaloo had been so caught up in everything she hadn't even considered it. Even she was surprised she didn't have anything after all of that. She'd considered it might be flight related and if it wasn't there after all of that, then maybe it wasn't after all. At least some things stayed the same for her and she had some kind of consistency in her life. She needed it after all the changes that she had been through. One good thing about the few weeks she had to heal up was that she was able to stop and really think about everything that had happened. It was hard to believe that it had only been a few months since the day she jumped in the Gorge. Now she had a home, a family, the world knew the truth about her, Diamond Tiara was gone, her dad was gone, and Rainbow Dash had a coltfriend. That was probably one of the biggest shocks. Star Shine and Rainbow Dash had decided to take things slow. As slow as they could considering that they already lived together. Rainbow Dash had taken him off of the couch and put him in her bed but things were just as innocent as they always were. It was just like those few times they had wound up sleeping on and or with eachother. Rainbow Dash was still too injured for anything more than a gentle hug anyway and they had to sleep on separate sides of the bed. They still hadn't had any kind of official date by the time Scootaloo was able to move her wings again. That was when things had started to get a little bad for Scootaloo. She thought it was bad when she couldn't move her wings at all. It was worse when she could barely move them no matter how much she wanted to. Moving them too fast made them hurt quite a lot so she had to be careful. She started out moving them very slowly at least once a day; essentially stretching them. Every time she moved them she wanted to flap them properly and take off. It was quite a hard urge to resist. Star Shine considered putting the brace back on her and tightening it so much she couldn't move her wings properly. That would have just made things worse because she would have to struggle harder to get it to move in the first place. Twilight suggested putting the brace back on her though until she could move her wings properly. She theorised that with the way it worked, it might help heal her wings and get them moving sooner. Time proved her right, as it generally did with Twilight Sparkle. Star Shine couldn't explain it and the way Twilight had tried to explain it confused him. It boiled down to the magic being pumped into Scootaloo's wings healed them. Twilight used more words than that, more complicated ones too, to explain it. The doctor who was treating Scootaloo had originally estimated that it would take about six months for her wings to heal properly and for her to fly again properly. It was mostly a matter of time needed for her wings to build their strength back up. That was also cut down thanks to the brace. It's main purpose was to strengthen her wings and it did that job just as admirably as it did before. Much to the surprise of her doctor, she was all good and healed after just a few months. Just in time for Hearth's Warming Eve. “Hey Mom, can you not tell dad about this?” Scootaloo asked Rainbow Dash. They were sat in the doctor's office, having just been given the all clear. The doctor was busy poking and prodding Scootaloo's wings trying to understand just what had happened. Rainbow Dash was sat next to her. Star Shine had business to attend to. Foals still needed training and he was still a flight trainer. “He's not your dad...” Rainbow Dash said, facehoofing. Star Shine was rubbing off on her. That phrase was becoming the most said thing in the house. Scootaloo had stopped referring to him by anything other than “dad” a while ago, no matter how much they protested. “Yeah yeah...not until you're married.” Scootaloo said, rolling her eyes. “You don't want him to know you can fly yet? He's been really worried about you and he'd want to know.” Rainbow Dash asked. Scootaloo shook her head. Star Shine had been pretty worried. He was hoping to get her flying again as soon as he could. He was trying his best to hide it. He was also failing terribly at it. “I know he'd like to know.” Scootaloo replied. “So why hide it?” Rainbow Dash asked. The doctor stopped analysing Scootaloo and simply shook his head. “I don't get it. How are your wings fixed so quickly? What did you do to them?” the doctor asked. He was still rubbing his chin in thought and trying to make sense of it all. Scootaloo shrugged and hovered up into the air a little. It felt great to be flying on her own. She giggled as she felt it. She'd not able to really concentrate on how she felt the last time she flew. She was kind of busy saving Rainbow Dash to do that. This was the first time she had flown since then and it felt pretty great. “I dunno, ask my dad I guess.” Scootaloo replied. “I've got a surprise for him to plan.” she grinned, flying out the window of the room. Who needs doors when you have wings? It was easy to understand why Rainbow Dash never used them. Rainbow Dash ran to the window and jumped out after her. “Hey! If you fly around like that he's gonna know!” Rainbow Dash called after her. Scootaloo calmed down and landed gently on Rainbow Dash's back. Her body was feeling much better and she was able to ferry Scootaloo around again now. “So what's your plan for Star Shine?” Rainbow Dash asked, turning as best as she could to face Scootaloo. “I'll tell you about it on the way home Mom. I might need your help pulling it off.” Scootaloo replied, nuzzling up to the back of Rainbow Dash's neck. One downside of flying on her own again would be missing out on cuddling up to Rainbow Dash like that. Rainbow Dash spread her wings, and took off in the direction of her house. The doctor, left even more confused than before, simply called in his next patient and went on with his day.