There was definitely something wrong with Scootaloo here. Not in the sense that she was still an overall unpleasant pony now. Not in the sense that she currently had more pain in her wing than she had ever experienced in her life. Discord may have been cruel, but never did he break her wings like this. That could actually be seen as part of the torture. He left her wings the only part of her body unharmed, because he was aware she wasn’t going to be able to fly with them so messing with them would’ve been pointless.
No. What was wrong with her were two specific things in particular relating to her current situation.
One: She was blushing like a complete lovestruck idiot in front of this universes’ equivalent of her crush.
Two: That. Damn. Heartbeat monitor. The second she realized Rumble was with her, the thing made it blatantly obvious that she was getting nervous. She didn’t care how expensive the stupid thing was. She really wanted nothing more than to break it in half.
But, there were more important matters she needed to pertain to right now.
Rumble tilted his head slightly.
“Sorry, but have we met before? How exactly do you know my name?” he asked.
“I-I umm…I uhhh…” it felt almost impossible for the poor grey filly to even get her words out without being so distracted by this colt’s cute face. As if her Rumble was bad enough, seeing him grown into a teenager only made things worse.
To D.S: Quick!! Try to hide!!
Seeing as how she couldn’t exactly move too much because of her severely injured wing, Scootaloo could do no more than hide under her hospital bed’s blanket and let out a girly squeal. She seriously couldn’t believe how she was acting right now. To make matters worse, the heartbeat monitor’s accursed beeping sped up.
‘Yeah. Great plan, idiot.’ She thought to herself.
“Ummm…you okay?” Rumble asked.
“F-Fine.” She replied. This had to be in at least a number three spot on the top ten most embarrassing moments of her life.
At the same time though, Rumble had no clue what was going on with her. He just saw her fall out of the sky mid-flight and that she had injured her wing. Being a ‘gentlecolt’ he couldn’t just leave her in the streets of Ponyville with a messed up wing, so he managed to get her to the hospital when he saw she had passed out from the pain.
Nothing explained this behavior from her though.
Discorded Scootaloo heard the hospital door open from under the blanket, which prompted her to come out from under the blankets to see who it was. Coming into the room was Sandy with Lightning Blitz riding on her back, and Motherly Scootaloo…who Dissy almost immediately noticed had tears in her eyes.
Before Discorded Scootaloo could even get a “hello” in, She found that her other self had zoomed toward her and wrapped her hooves around her torso.
“OH MY GOSH, THANK CELESTIA YOU’RE ALRIGHT!” Motherly screamed. Discorded Scootaloo didn’t quite know how to handle affection too well, seeing as she hasn’t really felt a friendly touch in quite some time, so she started squirming a little.
“Urgh. Scootaloo, not that I don’t appreciate the attention, but you’re sorta hurting my wing.” Dissy said. Motherly stopped for a moment to get an eyeful of what happened to her friend’s wing, and saw it was heavily bandaged with a few bloodstains on it. It also looked extremely limp and broken.
Seeing Dissy’s wing in such bad condition made Motherly Scootaloo’s already tear-flooded eyes go wide.
“Dear Celesta…how did this happen?!” She yelled.
“She had a pretty bad flying accident. Poor thing landed right on her wing, so I got her here as quick as I could.” Rumble chimed in.
To Rumble: How does it feel to see Dissy?
Rumble couldn’t get over how much he was pitying this poor mare right now. Not only was her wing horribly injured, but everything about her just looked…wrong. To him, she looked like she had felt nothing but sadness for a long time.
‘Just looking at her almost makes me want to cry myself.’ Rumble thought to himself. Her depression almost seemed a little contagious.
“Rumble, I don’t think we can thank you enough for helping our Dissy. You don’t have any idea how worried we were when she hadn’t come back after so long. We were about to go look for her ourselves until a nurse from the hospital came and told me that Scootaloo was in an accident.” Sandy said.
The sheer stupidity of what Sandy just said made Discorded Scootaloo’s mind reel.
‘Okay, I know I’m a different version of this Scootaloo and everything, so I guess it’s only natural that I’d look a lot like her, but…CAN THESE MORONS NOT TELL ORANGE FROM GREY?!?!’ She thought to herself.
“Dissy, what were you thinking?! You really shouldn’t try to fly without someone supervising you!” Motherly Scootaloo shouted. Obviously, she had been more than just a little worried about her other self’s whereabouts, and the volume of her voice made Rumble, Lightning Blitz, and Dissy flinch, although Sandy didn’t seem as surprised. Having children can sort of shock your nerves whenever someone you care about is in trouble.
Discorded Scootaloo noticeably shrank under the blanket, her muzzle being covered by it.
“I-I’m sorry. I-I was just seeing if I could do it. I hadn’t tried for so long and thought that I’d give it another chance. I never meant to make you so upset.” She whimpered, her eyes starting to water. She covered her face with the blanket a little more, slightly trying to hide her eyes. “I-I’m sorry….I’m so so sorry.” She continued whimpering.
To rumble: be nice to her, she is going through a rough time. I swear if you are not nice to her I will not be happy and that's not something you want.
To Rumble: This pony oddly resembles Scootaloo. I heard that Scoots has a sister, could this possibly be her?
“Scoots come on. I get that you were worried about your...sister?...alright. But can you lighten up a little? She really looks like she doesn’t want to deal with this right now.” Rumble pointed out, gesturing to the young grey mare that appeared to be on the verge of full-on sobbing.
Motherly Scootaloo looked at the now shaking pony under the blanket where she could hear a few sniffling sounds coming from inside. Her ears dropped to the sides of her head in realizing the mistake she had just made.
“Wha…Dissy I…no, I should be the one who’s sorry here. I didn’t mean to make you cry, I…I was just worried about you, that’s all. I don’t want you to get hurt.” Motherly said with a look of sadness on her face.
When she noticed that Dissy still wasn’t coming out, Motherly Scootaloo had to resort to different incentives. She reached into her hoodie pocket and pulled Dissy’s doll of herself out of it.
“Dissy, come outta there. I got your toy with me. You want it?” Motherly Scootaloo asked, slightly waving the plush pony above her.
Discorded Scootaloo had apparently considered that sentence enough of a reason for her to come out from under the blanket. She appeared to be quite happy at the sight of her doll and grabbed it from Motherly Scootaloo’s hooves, hugging it tightly afterwards with a smile on her face.
“You still think I’m a jerk?” Motherly Scootaloo asked Dissy, to which she replied by a quick shake of the head.
To DS: Stay away from that God-damned doll or I'll cut you!
Dissy’s joyous face appeared to be replaced with one of slight annoyance and anger.
“I’m not in the mood for your stupid, “Possessed Doll” BS right now, jackass. I can cut you right back” Dissy growled.
Just seeing how hostile this young mare could be, even in times of extreme pain, caught Rumble really off guard.
‘Woah. She really doesn’t take any crap does she?’ he thought.
Meanwhile, Motherly Scootaloo was busy covering Lightning’s ears.
“Dang it Dissy, you aren’t supposed to swear in front of Lightning anymore!”
“Oh right. Sorry. My mouth sometimes has a mind of its own.” Discorded Scootaloo said with a sheepish smile.
Just at that moment, a tan unicorn wearing a white coat trotted into the room, a concentrated look glazed over his spectacled eyes.
“Oh, so you’re finally awake are you? Good good. My name is Doctor Stable, and I’ll be taking care of you while you stay here. Now tell me, are you in any pain?” he asked.
D.S. What is your status, do you need help, or are you in any pain.
“Oh I don’t know, why don’t you ask my utterly destroyed wing if it hurts?” Discorded Scootaloo asked with a deadpan look.
Doctor Stable awkwardly coughed at how obvious Dissy had made that observation.
“…Yes well…Ms. Hooves, I understand that you are this filly’s guardian for the time being, correct?” He asked Sandy, who still had Lightning Blitz on her back.
“You’d be right.”
“Well then, may I speak with you in private about her current situation please?”
“Erm…Yes of course. Dissy, do you want to hold Lightning for a little bit?” Sandy asked.
Discorded Scootaloo was legitimately shocked to think that Sandy would ever trust her with holding onto her other’s foal. She had only changed the little guy’s diaper once (something she promised herself she’d never do again due to the job having to be done with her mouth.) and didn’t know how she could even trust her with him.
She wasn’t going to question it though.
“Uh…okay.” She said. Sandy then shifted Lightning onto Dissy’s hospital bed, to where she picked him up in her forelegs. Lightning looked at her with the same curious eyes he always gave her, and started to slightly swat at Dissy’s black mane in an adorable manner.
The sight made Motherly Scootaloo and Rumble both stifle a laugh.
“Yeah yeah, it’s hilarious and cute. I get it.” Dissy grumbled. She looked back to Lightning Blitz and awkwardly ruffled his mane, carefully petting him in the way a child would be afraid of touching an unfamiliar animal.
Sandy trotted out of the room and met with Doctor Stable for conversation on Dissy’s dilemma with her injury.
“So, what’s your diagnosis? How long will she be like this?” Sandy asked with a look of concern on her face.
“Not too long. Oh her wing is definitely broken; there’s no doubt about that. But it could’ve been a lot worse. It shouldn’t be too long before her wing is healed; a few days at most. But I need to bring something else into consideration here Ms. Hooves.”
“What? What’s wrong?”
“Well, from what that young colt in there told me, this injury occurred through a flight incident. Tell me, has that young mare had much experience in flight?” Doctor Stable asked.
“…No, I’m afraid not. This is the first I’ve even heard of her flying at all.”
“I see…Well, I suggest that if you want to avoid an injury like this in the future, that you get her enrolled in Cloudsdale’s flight academy so that she may learn to fly.” Doctor stable suggested with a serious look on his face.
“Do you think that would be best for her? She’d be away from home a lot, and she doesn’t look like she likes being separated from Scootaloo.” Sandy said.
“Well…if you think it would be in her best interest, then perhaps Scootaloo could also attend?”
Sandy furrowed her brow and put a hoof to her chin, contemplating the idea.
“Well…alright. If you think that would be the right thing to do.” Sandy said.
“Good. I can get you in touch with the director of the flight academy if you would like. Before she attends though, she’ll need to wait a few days for her wing to recover…oh and Ms. Hooves…while I was inspecting her when she was out, I found some pretty severe scarring on her back between her wings. Tell me, did Dissy have a history of physical abuse in her last home?” Doctor Stable asked.
Sandy put a hoof to her mouth in shock. Knowing where Dissy came from before she was with The Doctor, it almost drew her to tears when she thought about it.
‘…Discord you sick bastard.’
Dissy was still struggling a little bit with holding Lightning Blitz, seemingly afraid to touch him too much without the thought of hurting him.
“Oh come on Dissy, he’s a foal. He’s not gonna bite you or anything.” Motherly Scootaloo said.
“Yeah, you got nothing to be scared of. Just try to pet him a little.” Rumble also said.
Dissy blushed in embarrassment at having her uneasiness of the situation being noticed by this older and a LOT cuter version of her crush.
“I-I know. I’ve just never actually held a foal before.” Discorded Scootaloo mumbled. She tried petting his little stomach, which resulted in a slight giggle from the foal. It made Dissy a little warm inside knowing that Lightning liked her, and she gave a small smile.
Something that could make you happy... If this dimension is in a "plausible" future... then maybe there could be more books of Daring Do that you did not read.
I don't know if you are a fan of Daring doo like Rainbow Dash, but at least Daring Do did not make anything to you and you could even laugh in the face of the RD from your dimension because you could know something that she no. Imagine the ex-great RD begging you.
“Umm, Scootaloo? If it isn’t too much to ask, could you maybe find wherever they keep the books and see if they have any Daring Do stuff here? I kinda don’t know how long I’ll be here, and I don’t want to be bored to death.”
“Not a problem Dissy. Be back in a second.” Motherly Scootaloo said with a smile and trotted out of the room. It wasn’t until she left that Dissy realized that she had just made a terrible mistake.
‘Wait a second…I’m alone with Rumble…oh gosh.’ She thought, the familiar heat coming back into her cheeks.
The awkward silence between the two grey ponies was seemingly endless. Dissy was still embarrassed over how sickeningly adorable the sight of herself holding Lightning Blitz was, and Rumble looked a little nervous.
“Umm…Hey.” Rumble said with a sheepish smile.
Dissy didn’t fair much better.
“H-Hey.” She stuttered.
To Discorded Scootaloo: Remember what I said about staying away from stallion's inflatable poo-jabbers? Look, this Rumble may look like your Rumble, act like your Rumble, but he is not the colt you knew. He knows nothing about you, so don't expect him to be exactly as he was in your dimension. Sorry if I'm being condescending, but I've seen many a pony act like idiots to dimensional counterparts to dimentional equivalents.
‘No kidding this isn’t the same Rumble. This one’s kind of a dork…still, it’s pretty nice to see a familiar face.’
“Ummm…So…I kinda feel like I need to thank you.” Dissy stumbled over her word a little as she tried to awkwardly talk to Rumble.
“What? Why?” Rumble asked.
Discorded Scootaloo facehoofed. This Rumble may still be cute, but he was probably going to be a lot more difficult to work with. He didn’t seem as the overly confident and cocky type that her Rumble was.
“How about that you really saved my behind when I messed up my wing?”
To DS: sorry you didn't get my message sooner, the filter can be a bit of a jerk, glad you flew though!
To Discorded Scootaloo: For a second, I thought that you doll Blinked when you left o.o oh and also, Never give up. I couldn't fly when I was 5, but i never gave up. Eventually, I learned how to fly. You should do the same. Oh. Almost forgot. If your doll was somehow alive, how would you feel? (Not saying it is or anything)
“…Yeah…I suppose I did manage to actually get myself off the ground this time…wasn’t really anything Wonderbolt level though…If my doll was alive (which I once again remind you that it is not) I don’t think I can accurately put into words how creepy that’d be.”
Rumble slightly nudged Dissy’s shoulder.
“C’mon, don’t put yourself down like that. Were you able to fly before then?”
“…No.” she mumbled, doing her best to look away.
“Well consider this an improvement. You only get better from here, trust me. Don’t let one accident get you down, m’kay?” he asked.
To D.S: keep your eyes on his eyes, his may start to wander, or yours might.
Discorded Scootaloo turned back around (at the same time trying to ignore the foal currently nibbling on her ear) and her ice-blue eyes looking directly into Rumble’s purple one’s making them both blush furiously.
“Uhhh, w-why are you looking at me like that?” Rumble asked, obviously starting to get nervous and awkward again.
Seeing that she was actually getting a reaction out of him gave Dissy a slight sense of pride, and the thought made her smirk.
“Hehe. No reason.” She chuckled, at the same time trying to hide her own flustered state.
Scoots: Hello! I-....Oh, oh my...You've been quite badly injured. Wish I could help! but I just dropped in to ask you something.
Do you still like that colt...what was his name...RUMBLE! Yes! Ask him on his opinion on this dimension's Scootaloo. Maybe, just maybe, he had the hots for her. That means you could find out if he has the hots for you without feeling like an idiot! it's brilliant!
~The Professor.
‘Kinda late for not looking like an idiot, but…let’s find out.’
“Say Rumble…do you like my sister?” she asked, immediately resulting in another blushing session, this time coming out of Rumble by himself.
“I-I don’t feel c-comfortable answering that.” He stuttered.
Dissy raised an eyebrow and her smirk grew much wider at his reaction.
“Oh c’mon, you can tell me. I’ll keep my mouth shut, I swear.” Dissy said, almost starting to laugh.
“Uhhhh…”
Rumble. Tap that.
Discorded Scootaloo’s confidence was broken by a very serious wave of embarrassment and blushing, and both of them were staring at the question box with pin-prick eyes and nervous frowns.
“…”
“…”
“...PISS OFF!” Dissy yelled, her face still bright red.
“What kind of colt do you think I am?!?!” Rumble yelled with the same shade on his face.
Lightning Blitz’s ears perked up at the sound of Dissy’s yelling, and looked back up at her surrogate “aunt.”
Quickly realizing her mistake, Discorded Scootaloo looked back down at the young colt who she had just cursed in front of for the second time that day.
“Oh shi-I mean…dang it…uhhh, promise not to let your mom know about that, and I’ll give you a cookie. Deal?” she asked the foal, holding out her hoof. Lightning Blitz didn’t seem to understand what was happening, but shook her hoof in response.
Rumble rolled his eyes.
‘What is with this filly? I could hardly believe that she and Scoots are related if they didn’t look so alike.’