//------------------------------// // 6. Written in Stone // Story: Under Our Wing // by Kodeake //------------------------------// Under Our Wing Chapter 6 Written in Stone “WHAT!?” Rarity bit her lip, glancing around nervously before looking back to the two equally shocked faces before her. “I'm afraid so... I only just found out about it last night. A couple guards came to the hospital looking for Scootaloo and they told me what happened.” Twilight fell back to her haunches, eyes wide as she stared into some space only she was aware of. “I... I can't imagine...” “When... when did this happen?” Rainbow asked, still numb from the news. “The day before your wedding is when the train derailed. According the the guards they went to tell Scootaloo and... she ran away. They've been looking for her since, and you know what finally happened just yesterday... not that I can blame her, the poor thing...” Rarity explained solemnly. “Were either of you close with them?” Rainbow shook her head slowly. “No.. no, not really. I mean I knew them; they had me look after Scoot's a few times when she was younger and they had to go out of town but... I never really knew them...” Nodding her head, Twilight sniffled. “I only met them a few times but... to think they're just gone... how Scootaloo must have felt when they told her...” “What's going to happen to her now?” Rainbow asked hesitantly, scared of the answer she suspected was the truth. “She's still a filly, and she doesn't have any other relatives,” Rarity sighed sadly. “Once she's healed, they'll move her to an orphanage in Canterlot or Cloudsdale.” Twilight stared wide eyes at the ground in front of her, locked in her own mind. Eventually, she asked, “How long until she's released from hospital?” “I don't know; the doctors aren't allowed to tell me anything without permission, and Scootaloo's refusing to talk to anypony. The only thing she's said is that Sweetie Belle and Applebloom could go in, and that we shouldn't have saved her...” Rarity trailed off for a moment. “She barely even acknowledges her friends, but they won't leave her. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with them; they don't know about Scootaloo's parents yet, or what she did, and I don't want to be the one to tell them she'll be leaving Ponyville...” “We have to do something!” Rainbow shouted angrily, stomping her hoof into the ground. “We can't just sit around and do nothing!” Rarity sighed sadly. “What can we do? I'm worried about her too, but what she needs right now is a kind of help none of us can provide. All we can do for now is trust that wherever she gets placed, they get her to a psychiatrist, and hope that she doesn't try again.” “There has to be something...” Rainbow trailed off, glancing back at the suddenly imposing form of the hospital. “I can't just... abandon her...” Reaching out, Twilight placed a gentle hoof on the pegasus' shoulder. “You're not abandoning her, Rainbow; there's nothing you can do right now. When she wakes up we'll talk to her but... Rarity's right; she needs more than what we can give her.” Rainbow didn't respond, instead opting to continue glaring at the dirt beneath her hooves. Rarity sighed sadly. “She's a strong filly, but this is... I don't know how she's going to make it.” “She'll be out of it for a while,” Twilight said, shifting awkwardly. “We should probably go drop our stuff off, maybe get something to eat. Hopefully by time we get back she'll be awake and willing to talk to us.” “I'm not leaving her.” Twilight sighed, shaking her head. “I thought you'd say that. Here; give me your bags. I'll take them back and pick you up something to eat, alright?” “I'm sorry I didn't grab something for you girls,” Rarity apologized guiltily. “I didn't think you'd be back until later tonight. I should have known you'd leave the first chance you got.” “It's alright, Rarity,” Twilight assured as she levitated the bags from Rainbow's back. “I'll be back soon. And Rainbow?” The pegasus grunted, already starting her way back up the hill to the hospital. Twilight sighed, not even beginning to believe the words she was about to say. “We'll figure something out.” “I... I know we will, Twi.” She looked over her shoulder, the tears gathering in her eyes telling more than the fractured smile on her lips. “We have to.” “Ah, hello again, Rainbow Dash. It's been a while since you've been here.” Rainbow's head snapped up from her pacing hooves, looking to the source of the voice. “Heya Doc.” Doctor Stable frowned when he heard the hollow tone in the mare's voice. His eyes narrowed slightly. “Aren't you and Twilight supposed to be on a honeymoon or something?” “We came back... for Scootaloo,” Rainbow answered slowly, turning so she was fully facing the stallion. “How is she?” “Scootaloo?” He asked, slightly puzzled as he turned to the disinterested receptionist. “Why's Scootaloo in here?” The mare blinked at him a few times before raising an eyebrow. She leaned forward over her desk, whispering; “She jumped into Ghastly Gorge. She should have just gotten out of surgery.” The doctor's eyes widened. “She what!? Why was I not informed of this!?” “You were busy; she's being looked after by Doctor...” she trailed off, glancing through her files a moment. “Doctor Cure.” The brown stallion shook his head. “I'm never too busy to be informed of a foal getting injured in such a manner. We work a little differently than the Canterlot hospitals did, and as head Doctor in this hospital I am to be informed of every patient who comes through that door. Understood?” The mare nodded swiftly. “O-of course, I didn't mean to-” “It's fine, just make sure I'm informed from now on. You'll find very few things keep me too occupied to care about the ponies in this town. However, a more pressing matter is why Rainbow Dash is sitting out here if Scootaloo is no longer in surgery.” “She's not a family member,” the receptionist said casually, shrugging her shoulders. “We need the patient's permission for visitors.” Doctor Stable groaned, rolling his eyes. “This mare is, in every respect that truly matters, Scootaloo's older sister. Now I want you to personally show her to Scootaloo's room, and... actually, scratch that. I'll show her the way, and you're to have Scootaloo's file on my desk when I get back; as her GP I'd like to know exactly what happened.” “Of course, Doctor. She's in room 314,” The mare said, already gathering files in her hooves. The stallion nodded his approval, motioning with a hoof for Rainbow to follow him, an offer she accepted without hesitation. “I do apologize; she's pretty new around town, used to work up in Canterlot. Had I know what happened I'd have tended to Scootaloo personally.” “Listen, Doc, I appreciate this, but Twi-” “Will be shown up as soon as she arrives. I trust she'll be here shortly?” Rainbow felt herself give a small smile. “Y-yeah... she just went to grab some things. But... about Scootaloo...” “I'm sure she's going to be just fine, Rainbow Dash; there's nothing to worry about,” The doctor replied smoothly as he lead the way up a short flight of stairs. “I... I dunno, Doc,” Rainbow said slowly, fidgeting awkwardly, her feathers bristling with an anxious energy. “Did you hear what happened to her?” Doctor Stable sighed under his breath. “My receptionist tells me she jumped into Ghastly Gorge, but that can't be right. It's probably just a theory to explain what happened – Quick Cure does like to jump to conclusion a fair bit more than I can recommend in these situations - and when Scootaloo wakes up she'll explain how she fell in doing something to find her cutie mark. Isn't that always the reason with her?” “No... according to Rarity she already woke up.” Rainbow bit her lip nervously as she was stopped in front of dark wooden door, the numbers '314' written on a copper plaque. “And said they shouldn't have saved her...” “What?” The doctor's eyes grew wide and he staggered back as though somepony had just punched him in the gut. “Why would-” Rainbow hung her head, biting back a sniffle. “It's her parents... they were on a train coming back from Manehattan when it derailed. They're both dead.” The very air that filled the hall seemed to freeze as the words left her lips, as though the building itself were mourning the loss of life. Doctor Stable seemed at a loss as several long moments passed. Eventually he nodded slowly and motioned to the door. “This is her room... I... I have some calls to make. Please, excuse me.” Rainbow watched him hurry down the hall, white coat fluttering behind him as he turned a corner. She looked back to the door looming over her, a chill running down her spine. Countless images swam through her mind as she imagined what might lay behind the door. A broken and battered body, kept alive only by machines, was the first thing Rainbow saw, and the very thing she feared most. With a careful, trembling hoof, she pushed the door open. Silent thanks to the well-maintained hinges, it left in its wake an image Rainbow Dash did not expect, but was perhaps more terrifying than anything her mind could conjure up, simply because due to the reality of it. In a small square room, air permeated with a sterile smell that stung at her nostrils, was a single bed covered in mint-green sheets that matched the drapes covering the room's one window. The floor was a simple linoleum pattern of white tiles, supporting only the bed and an adjacent nightstand. The light was out and the curtains were drawn, bathing the room in a foreboding darkness that only served to highlight a small figure in the bed as the light from the hall washed over it. What little light made it through the window illuminated a purple tuft of scraggly mane poking out from beneath the light blanket. A lump beneath the covers rose and fell slowly, methodically – mechanically. For a moment Rainbow's heart seized, though she let out a small breath when she did not hear the tell-tale beeping of machinery. In fact, the room was silent save for the quiet, near-inaudible breaths of the filly in the bed who was, at the very least, living on her own strength. “S-scoot's?” Rainbow called, her voice cracked and hoarse as though she'd not used it in days. The lump beneath the covered twitched, shifted, before falling still again as the blanket fell away slightly. Scootaloo's head, propped up on a pillow, rolled into a sliver of light falling from between the curtains, casting her face in stark contrast. The filly's forehead was wrapped with white bandages, part of her mane having been shaved away, and one of her eyes was swollen. Rainbow stepped slowly into the room, coming to the foot of the bed. For what felt like hours she just stood there, looking down at the filly before her and struggling to accept the reality of the station. Any minute now Scootaloo would jump out of the bed, a huge smile plastered on her face, and declare the entire thing a prank. Rainbow blinked, and her eyes focused away from her fantasy and back to cold, hard reality. Perhaps, the next time she closed her eyes, she'd open them and be staring up at the roof of her cabin the Crystal Empire, and everything would be a dream. She blinked again, and again her hopes died, strangled like a flame in a jar. “Rainbow?” The pegasus jumped at the sudden voice, her head whipping around to find the source. Twilight stood hesitantly int he doorway, framed in dim the light from the hall. Rainbow held a hoof to her lips, motioning for Twilight to come in. “She's still asleep,” she whispered. Twilight nodded her understanding, stepping into the room and closing the door behind her. The light from the all was shut out, leaving the room even darker than it was before. The wafting aroma from a brown paper bag carried in Twilight's magic caught Rainbow's attention. She raised an eyebrow. “It's called comfort food,” Twilight said with a roll of her eyes, taking out two individually wrapped hayburgers. “And right now... we could all use a little comfort.” “It's weird... I saw them just a few weeks ago, before they left on their trip...” Rainbow ruffled her feathers and sat in one of a row of chairs against the wall. “And now I'll never see them again...” A sigh thick with emotion was the unicorn's response as she too sat in a chair, passing one of the burgers to Rainbow and unwrapping her own. “I can't even begin to imagine how she must feel... I've never lost anypony like that. Even my grandparents are still around. If I lost both my parents like that... and at such a young age...” “Somepony needs to tell Applebloom and Sweetie Belle...” “They're still waiting in the lobby,” Twilight said, hesitantly glancing towards the door. “I wouldn't let them follow me up... not until Scootaloo's awake. They shouldn't see her like this.” Rainbow gave a quite sound of agreement, sagging in her chair. Neither of them had touched the food, a fact Twilight noted with a frown. “I guess it's asking a bit much to feel like eating at a time like this.” “She's a strong filly,” Rainbow said quietly, more to herself than the other mare in the room. “She'll get through this... somehow.” Thunder shook the earth and lightning split the sky as pitch black clouds pelted the earth with rain. Wind howled in the trees like the shrieks of banshees in the distance. It was all but black outside, lit only by the frequent strikes of lightning that showed snapshots of the world, frozen in a single flash of light. In the middle of it all a lone filly sat, surrounded by the wailing trees and rumbling thunder, her tears hidden by the water pouring from her sopping purple mane. Her orange hooves sunk up to her knees in mud, though she could care less about her appearance. If she was being honest with herself, she could care less about most things. The pain had only grown stronger with her tears until she felt nothing but the all-consuming sorrow. So Scootaloo stood on shaking legs and frozen hooves, looking down into Ghastly Gorge. The darkness made the abyss seem endless, the wind blowing through the crevasse and making a moaning, groaning rumble. The earth itself sounded as hungry as her own growling stomach. The filly's shoulders shook with her sobs, tears blurring her vision as she stepped up to the edge, her wings snapping open on instinct alone. Not like they'd help her if she fell; too small to even hover, and so water logged they'd speed up her decent rather than slow it down. No... if she fell in, it was as good as a death sentence. If the fall didn't get her, the rushing water she knew lay at the bottom would surely pull her under. Yet she didn't step back. Instead, treading carefully on the mud slicked ground, Scootaloo walked forward as far as she could go, sitting back on her flank and letting her forehooves dangle over the seemingly infinite darkness below. From above, shining through a small hole in the clouds, a single ray of moonlight shone down on her like a spotlight. Suddenly she was on the stage at her school's talent show, standing tall and proud in front of the crowd alongside her two closest friends in the world. Looking out across the sea of ponies Scootaloo's smile widened when she saw two faces, one an orange pegasus mare with a lemon-lime mane and the other an earth pony stallion with a purple mane and deep red coat. They grinned when she caught their eyes and waved. A flash of lightning struck and brought reality crashing down on the filly as she looked down into the gorge. In the darkness she could swear she could see her parent's faces in the sliver of moonlight that shown down past her hooves. Blinking her eyes hard the images faded and her heart twisted painfully in her chest. Scootaloo stood up, fanned her wings, and stepped forward... Then hesitated as two other faces from her memory replayed in her mind. “Sweetie Belle... Applebloom... I...” she sniffled loudly, backing away from the edge. She managed to get two more steps back before nature intervened in the form of of a massive gust of wind that caught in her wings, sending her tumbling forward. Her outstretched hooves stopped just short of the edge, and a sigh of relief escaped her lips before a low rumbling shook the ground. A rumbling that did not come from the sky. The mud beneath Scootaloo's hooves fell away in an instant, the loosened dirt sliding frictionlessy into the gorge, and binging the filly in with it. Her lungs burned as she screamed, falling into the darkness even as her useless wings flapped with all their might. As the last spec of light from above was lost and she was sent tumbling alone into an impenetrable darkness, her screams stopped. She looked down, knowing that soon she'd hit the bottom and be swept away in the current, and her heart slowed. Once again in the darkness she saw two familiar faces looking at her, smiling at her, waiting for her. Scootaloo's heart slowed, her breathing evened, and she closed her eyes. And she waited. And waited. And waited. A magenta eye peaked open. Still there was darkness, but her tail no longer fluttered in the rushing air. Her breath returned to her lungs as she realized she was no longer falling. “Is... is it over?” She asked herself aloud, opening both eyes and looking around the blackness that consumed her vision. “Yes, child, it is over. Though not how you expected.” Scootaloo started at the familiar voice, whipping her head around. “Princess Luna... so I'm-” “Dreaming, yes,” the princess answered with a solemn nod. With a wave of her horn a scene materialized around them. Scootaloo suddenly fund herself on a small hill overlooking Ponyville, a full moon hanging in the sky and the stars brighter than she'd ever before seen them. The filly's eyes brightened. “So then my parents aren't really-” She stopped dead when she saw the pained look on the alicorn's face. “No... please... please say it was all just a dream. I-it has to be a dream! Please...” Luna sighed, falling back onto her flank and extending a wing to wrap around the filly even as she shied away from the contact. “I am truly sorry, Scootaloo, but this dream was more memory than imagination.” More tears streamed down the filly's face as she forced herself out from under the wing. “No!” She screamed, “It's a nightmare. You're part of it too! It has to be... I gotta wake up.” “Scootaloo...” “Wake up!” She lifted her hoof and bit into her leg. “Wake up wake up wakeupwakeup!” By time she let goo her teeth had broke her skin and blood oozed down her foreleg. “Scootaloo, please, you must-” “You shouldn't have saved me!” Scootaloo shouted, glaring through her bleary eyes at the midnight princes. “I'd have woken up when I hit the ground! I'd be awake and and they'd be there and... and...” Luna lit her horn, the wound vanishing from the filly's leg. “Please, Scootaloo, listen to me. I know it hurts – believe me I know – but you cannot let it consume you.” “Why not!?” Scootaloo demanded, stamping her hooves into the grass beneath her as she remembered waking up in the hospital. “I just want to be happy... with my mom and my dad... why won't anypony let me be happy with them?! If Fluttershy hadn't found me-” “You'd leave two heartbroken fillies without their friend. A mare without a sister. You'd cut short a life that is only just beginning,” Luna said, her voice firm with a gentle, soothing undertone. Scootaloo sniffled weakly, hanging her head and obscuring her eyes behind her bangs. “B-but... my parents...” “Would want you to go on and be happy. You don't die for those you love; you live for them.” Luna sighed when the filly didn't respond. “The next year will be a trying time for you, child. At times it will seem as though all hope for a happy future is lost, but I urge you to not give up on living a full life.” “Shut up; you don't know what it feels like... you don't know anything!” Luna nodded. “Perhaps not... I will continue to watch over your dreams, young Scootaloo. We do not want a repeat of tonight. Now, there are some ponies waiting for you in the waking world. Please, take my advice.” With a flash of light the princess of gone, leaving Scootaloo alone as the hill slowly faded back to blackness and a soft pressure formed beneath her. She shifted slightly, feeling a pillow beneath her head and a blanket atop her body. “I think she's waking up!” “Scootaloo? Hey... Scoot's...” Scootaloo's eyes screwed shut tighter, praying that if she just fell back asleep she'd wake up in her own bed in her own room. When it didn't happen, she let out a short, strangled sob. “She shouldn't have saved me...”