The Sisters of Loyalty

by Keeper of time RD

Chapter 3: Sisters Born of Loyalty

A godforsaken beeping noise was the first thing perceived by Rainbow Dash’s mind. Followed by the oppressive weight of the blankets on top of her. After a few seconds her mind had woken up enough to identify the noise as a heartbeat monitor. A few seconds more and Dash’s unfortunate familiarity with such devices told her that something was off about the beeping noise, like it had an echo. Perhaps the speaker is giving out, she thought.

Unable to learn anything more with just her ears Rainbow forced her eyes to open, and was completely unsurprised to find herself lying on her back, looking at the ceiling of Ponyville hospital. Judging from the darkness in the room, it must have been the middle of the night. Tilting her head slightly she found a clock that seemed to be saying it was 3 A.M.

Slowly stretching her limbs, Dash tested her body until she had counted off four legs, two wings and even the wiggle of her tail. Content that everything was still there and working, Rainbow concluded that the only thing wrong with her now was the feeling of unnatural weakness.

At that the moment Dash’s ears found something else of interest, the sound of breathing, lots of slow, quiet breathing. Slowly looking down, she found the room was littered with ponies sleeping on the floor around her. From the yellow pegasus with a pink mane, Fluttershy, to the pink earth pony, Pinkie Pie, and even the purple alicorn Twilight Sparkle were all sleeping against the wall to the right, as if to stay out of the way of any medical staff. Looking to the left, Rainbow found Apple Bloom sleeping on her big sister, the orangeish-tan earth pony, Applejack. Sweetie Belle was also sprawled out on her elder sister, an equally white unicorn although with a purple mane, Rarity.

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but smile at the realization that she was more surprised to see Rarity sleeping on the floor than Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Taking note of the one friend missing from the scene, Dash finally realized what was wrong with the sound of the heartbeat monitor. It wasn’t one machine with an audio error, it was two heartbeat monitors in almost perfect sync.

Looking up from the gap where Applejack, Rarity, and the two crusaders were sleeping, Rainbow Dash found Scootaloo on the other bed in the room. Unlike herself, Scootaloo had repositioned herself so she was lying on her belly, with her legs tucked under her.

Eyes already open, Scootaloo gave a truly feeble smile, even opening her wings happily for a moment only for them to fall limp by her side, clearly unable to find the energy to bother folding them back to a proper resting position.

“You okay squirt?” Dash asked in a whisper, unable to stop herself from thinking that the filly somehow looked worse off now then when they’d been in the forest.

“You’re okay, so I’m okay,” Scootaloo whispered back, though it wasn’t entirely clear if she was trying to be quite because Rainbow had been, or if a whisper was all she could manage. Barely lifting her head off the bed, her eyes turned down to the gap between the two beds and she added, “Should we wake them?”

First taking a moment to look at the friends sleeping all around her, Dash then shook her head. “They must have been up late worrying about us. Let them sleep. They look like they could use it.”

The minutes dragged on, maybe it was only seconds, Rainbow Dash couldn’t tell. Between the inability to fall back asleep and the boredom it didn’t really matter. It didn’t help that the blankets on her were starting to make her feel hot.

Pushing the heavier blankets off, Dash sat up and finding Scootaloo’s eyes still looking back at her, she asked in a whisper, “Can’t sleep either huh?”

Scootaloo’s eyes moved more than her head as she answered silently.

Looking around the room, Rainbow Dash was searching for anything they could do to pass the time with out waking their friends. Spotting a water bottle next to her bed an idea flash through her mind, and she turned back to Scootaloo and whispered, “You know, you never showed up for the flying lesson I was suppose to give you yesterday.”

Fear entered Scootaloo’s eyes as they turned downward, “Sorry,” was all she could say, her voice was barely audible, fearing that she’d finally blown it, that she’d finally made a mistake that made Rainbow Dash mad at her.

Rainbow smiled softly as she responded, “Don’t be. Why do you think I was looking for you in the first place? Anyway I don’t think either of us will be flying any time soon, so how about a weather lesson instead?”

That brought a small smile back to Scootaloo, as she remembered to breathe again.

“Watch and learn,” Rainbow Dash said, and then proceeded to open the water bottle as quietly as she could. Taking a mouthful of the water, she began flapping her wings softly yet quickly. The awkward bends in her wings made the purpose of her wing beats unknown to the filly, at least until Dash started spitting the water out in a fine spray. Misting the air in front of her, the vortex she was creating with her wings became apparent, and to top it off a cloud was forming in the newly misted, spinning air.

Giving a single weak laugh Scootaloo whispered, “Is that really how clouds are made?”

“Only if you’re desperate. At the weather factory they just put the water in a machine to heat it up and make steam, and then you just have to stabilize the steam to make clouds. But all you really need is wet air and the knowledge of how to mix it to make a cloud. We daredevils do it all the time, usually for skywriting or just to make a cool wake behind us.” Blushing slightly at the realization that she’d just shown the filly how to make a cloud with spit-water, Dash added, “Usually if you need to make a cloud in the field I’d suggest finding a waterfall. The air near those is always wet. But yeah… it really doesn’t matter how the air gets wet.”

The whole time she’d been giving her whispered lesson, Rainbow Dash had also been reforming the cloud into four lines that looked a lot like a # symbol. Setting the shaped cloud in the gap between the two beds, leaving it just over Applejack and Apple Bloom’s heads. Then taking another swig of water Dash repeated the process and made another cloud.

At first Scootaloo didn’t know what to make of the small rings of cloud Rainbow Dash was making from the second cloud and passing to her. However, once Dash made a set of cloud X’s for herself and placed one in the corner of the grid cloud, Scootaloo recognized the cloud creation as a tic-tac-tow board. Pushing one of her O’s into the gap between the beds she made her first move, and the game was on.

* * * * * * *

The first light of the sunrise peaked over the horizon and through the window of the hospital room, and it made Applejack stir from her sleep.

“It’s about time you woke up, sleepyhead,” Rainbow Dash said in a plane voice, unable to resist the rare chance to call out Applejack for sleeping in latter than her.

The farm pony could only smile, and turn her head to the other bed. “Rainbow, Scootaloo, thank goodness y’all are okay.” After a moment’s pause Applejack added, “What do ya mean ‘about time’?”

Compressing the cloud game-board into a single normal looking cloud, Dash answered, “Scoots figured out tic-tac-tow over an hour ago. We’ve been playing nothing but draws ever since.” Seeing that the exchanged of words had roused the rest of the ponies in the room, she added, “Hey, can somepony open the window for me?”

The glow of Twilight Sparkle’s magic answered, as the alicorn smiled, silently overjoyed that her friends were well.

With a casual push, Rainbow Dash sent the cloud out the window and into the morning sky. “Today’s weather schedule called for partly cloudy skies. So, there, don’t let anypony say I didn’t at least try to do my job today,” Rainbow Dash answered the questioning looks the act drew from her friends, and drawing some giggles instead.

In the moments that followed everypony expressed their joy and relief that the two bedridden pegasi were okay. However the moment was short lived, soon the door to the room opened and a tan unicorn stallion with a brown mane entered, and the presence of the doctor was enough to silence even Pinkie Pie’s ramblings about party planning.

Braking the sudden silence that had fallen on the room, the doctor began by saying, “First off let me thank the both of you. The night shift nurse told me that you had awoken much early but chose to let us all get some sleep anyway. Thank you.”

“Thanks for patching us up doc,” Rainbow Dash said with a nod.

“No. I don’t deserve your thanks, she does,” the doctor said with the most somber tone, and monitoring to Scootaloo with his hoof.

Dash tilted her head slightly and asked, “I don’t understand. She’s not a doctor, and it looks like you treated her as much as you did me.”

“I see, nopony has told you,” the stallion said, as a haunted look entered his eyes.

Between the silence from her friends and the look in the doctor’s eyes Rainbow Dash was almost too afraid to ask. Although after a moment she did anyway. “Told me what?”

“Having been here before, I trust you are aware of your blood type?” the doctor asked, turning his gaze slightly downward, more toward the bed than the pegasus on in.

After a moment of thought Dash managed an unsure answer, “Yeah, I have a rare pegasus blood type. Right?”

“Yes, and being a hospital in a small town with so small a penitential need, we wouldn’t necessarily have your blood type on hoof, if not for your well-known risk taking anyway.”

“But because I’m the local super-awesome daredevil you do, so what’s the big deal?”

Seeing that the mare still didn’t it, the doctor shook his head slightly before continuing, “You’re blood type may be rare, but you’re not the only pegasus in town that has it. Yesterday morning one such individual was in an accident, and we had to use the only bag of your blood type. Naturally, we put in a formal request for Cloudsdale to send us a replacement, but that wouldn’t have arrived for another day or two. There wasn’t any rush, after all, what are the odds that two of the very few ponies in a small town of a rare blood type would get in serious accidents in the same day?”

Taking a moment to breathe a heavy sigh, the doctor’s mood only seemed to grow darker as he continued, “Needless to say, when your friends brought you in we sent a flyer to Cloudsdale with an emergency request for the blood. But given the flight times and the paperwork involved in even an emergency request for blood… you were as good as dead.”

The doctor paused as if to allow Rainbow a chance to react. All Rainbow Dash did was raise an eyebrow. The simple fact that she was listening to this meant there was more to the story, and she didn’t see the need to ask the obvious question.

With no question forthcoming, the doctor continued the story anyway, “Naturally, your friends volunteered to provide the transfusion. However Fluttershy was not a match.”

Putting the pieces together Rainbow Dash smiled, her eye’s shimmering with pride as she looked to Scootaloo. If she’d had the blood pressure for it the filly would have blushed, but as it was, what little color found its way to her cheeks wasn’t strong enough to be seen through her fur.

“While her cases were less severe than yours, Scootaloo was also suffering from blood loss and exposure. Given her state and her age, I normally would not have allowed her to give the transfusion. But with both Scootaloo and Princess Twilight begging me to save you, I bent the rules and went ahead with it anyway…” a trembling came into the doctor’s voice as he continued, “I-I thought that I’d k-killed Scootaloo when s-she went critical d-during the transfusion.”

The doctor took a moment to breathe deeply and regain his composure before continuing. “We had to stabilize both of you repeatedly after that. Ironically enough, both of you had been stable for a full twenty minutes by the time the flyer returned from Cloudsdale.”

Looking sternly into Rainbow’s eyes the doctor finished by saying, “That is why she deserves your thanks. It is her blood flowing through your vanes, it is her blood that kept you live through the night, and she almost died giving it to you.”

In the silent seconds that followed Rainbow Dash could only look blankly down at her own chest. When life finally sparked in her eyes she reached up with a sky-blue hoof, and in one swift motion she ripped the away the sensors taped to her chest. The act caused the heart beat monitor to complain of a flat line before being shut off by the glow of the doctor’s magic. Now un-tethered, Rainbow stepped down into the gap between the two hospital beds.

Once face to face with Scootaloo, Dash opened her mouth to speak, but the words refused to form in her mind let alone escape her lips. Unable to find words good enough, Rainbow Dash closed her mouth, and instead she climbed up onto Scootaloo’s bed. Sitting down beside the filly, she reached out with her front legs and pulled Scootaloo into a hug. Opening her wings, Dash wrapped one around the younger pegasus high, covering her head, and the other wing low, around her body. Burying her face in Scootaloo’s mane, the tip of the filly’s tail became the only visible evidence that Rainbow Dash wasn’t alone on the bed.

Scootaloo had never seen anypony, let alone the self-declared daredevil, tough-pony Rainbow Dash, embrace another so completely, and not only had Rainbow embraced her so completely, so lovingly, but the prideful pony had done so in a room full of witnesses.

Completely wrapped in an artificial womb of Rainbow Dash’s fur and feathers, Scootaloo had never felt more loved in all her life then she did in that moment and it made her want to cry. Lifting up her front legs the filly did her best to hug Rainbow back, and buried her face in her idol’s chest. Letting her tears flow into Dash’s fur, she felt a shuttering in her hero’s lungs, and a warm wetness on top of her head that proved that Rainbow Dash was silently crying too, draining her tears into the Scootaloo’s mane.

Not a word was said, not a word had to be. For they both understood that they might not been born sisters by blood, but they had a sisterhood born of something stronger. They had a sisterhood born of loyalty and nothing could ever break that bond.

Comments

[Blueball_blitz1233]

That is soo cute
I love it ☺

[Keeper of time RD]

4653048

noted and fixed. thank you, That error truly eluded me.

[RaylanKrios]

Aww. Great little dashaloo story. If I had a complaint it would be that a blood transfusion doesnt seem like it'd be so life threatning, kidney or liver transplant might fit better, but I'm just nitpicking.

[Keeper of time RD]

4654596

perhaps this is a case of me being too logical... in this case the simple observation that, judging from their size, a filly like Scootaloo has approximately 1/3 the body mass of a full grown mare, and there for her body would only need/have one third the blood of a healthy mare to begin with. Toss in the blood loss Scoots suffered earlier and it seemed perfectly reasonable to me that the doctor would be worried that she might not have enough blood left to keep both herself and Dash alive until their bodies could make more.

Regardless thank you for sharing your opinion.

[JadeCriminal]

Is it just me or is scootaloo loking like she needs an adult in that image? For a moment i thoyght i had my mature filters off. XD

[Keeper of time RD]

4655554

The image is nothing more then a screenshot directly from the 'Sleepless in Ponyville' episode that I just resized and added the story name to.

[TheGreatEater]

“While her cases were less severe then your,

case
yours
________________

[Keeper of time RD]

4656239

Noted, and evaluated.

And thank you for the extra pass of error correction. However, in two of your three suggested corrections I find what I wrote the first time is what I intended.

You are correct however in that I meant yours.

[TheGreatEater]

4656775

The word "The" needed to be capitalized (The word after punctuation), and cases would be accurate if had multiple medical treatments at different intervals, by different doctors. But usually that's why a check up is ran, to see all the treatments needed, and then done by one doctor, by one go through. Thus case since it was all revolved around when she stepped hoof in the hospital.

But you're welcome.

[Maxxarcade]

Simple and beautiful, I love stuff like this between Scoots and RD

I'm really hoping for more bonding between them in season 5.

[kluck]

very good story! nice job

[Keeper of time RD]

4657359

With further contemplation on the matter of case vs cases, it seems to me that this is little more then a matter of personal perspective. With you focusing on the fact that the hospital will record the entire event under one case file, and me focusing on the fact that multiple ailments were treated. Both perspectives seem to have equal merit, between that and fact that character speech doesn't even have to be technically correct, you'll have to forgive me for choosing to retain my original choice of word.

I am intrigued by your insistence over the capitalization bit, as following your advice is what earned me the following feedback when I wrote In Another Pony's Hooves:

You need to fix your dialogue tags, love. When you have a line of dialogue followed by who said it and how, the whole thing must be treated as a single sentence; you must end the character's dialogue with a comma, not a period, and you do not capitalize the first word outside the closing quote mark unless it's a name. (If the character's dialogue ends with a question or exclamation mark, you use those as usual, but still don't capitalize the next word after.)

:end quote

From what I have been able to gather, that rule trumps the one you mentioned. If that is not the case, what is the condition present that exempts the line in question from being treated as part of the same line as the dialogue despite also including who spoke it? (In this case via Apple Bloom's description.)

[Keeper of time RD]

To everyone simply passing along that you enjoyed the story, I am glad that I was able to entertain you. Thank you for the kind words.

[TheGreatEater]

4661102

Actually found another error to answer your question. Ordinary yes. Coma doesn't capitalize, but then you have this.

“What’s wrong Scootaloo?” the white unicorn filly with a pink and purple mane asked in response.

and

“What are ya talking about?” the yellow earth pony filly with a red mane asked, frowning all the more.

By using a ?, !, or a . you capitalize the word after that punctuation mark. Thus I am right in my insistence. If you were to use a , before the " then you are correct, it would remain lowercase. But by using the punctuation before the " mark, the word needs to be capitalized.

[Keeper of time RD]

4661199
You are merely restating the rule that is expressly addressed by the rule I noted, (If the character's dialogue ends with a question or exclamation mark, you use those as usual, but still don't capitalize the next word after.)

So I'll ask again, what condition are you using to expect those lines from being treated as continuations of the dialogue when the lines in question are little more then elaborate ("X?" the pony asked.) lines?

[TheGreatEater]

4661253

Actually yes you do. It's in every work of writing by competent writers. Names get capped, and if you don't use a comma then the word after the " tag gets capped.

Anywho, don't care anymore. Cap it or not, not really interested in the story to begin with, didn't follow through on the whole "loyalty of the sisters put to the test" bit, nor did it really use the tension of that promise. Scoots had a concern she mentioned in private, Dash saved her without knowing about it, Scoots saves Dash. The end. All in all it was mediocre, but not bad enough to earn a down vote. The over all story was short enough that even after loosing interest I followed it to see if the long description panned out, and I was more than happy to leave the fic with as little comments as possible.

That being said, in the fics/stories/other forms of literature I've read, and from the constant corrections of my editors when I didn't cap the word after the " tag where punctuation was used I gave that comment. Although it would be better yet if you avoided LUS to begin with. I promise the names don't get boring if you use them throughout the fic. Regardless, I'm done with the fic, best of luck with your future endeavors, and while I'm not upvoting this fic I'm not about to down vote it.

[Keeper of time RD]

4661288

I see, so i simply have conflicting advice.

As far as the test of loyalty I was simply referring to the test of 'how far would each go for the other?', and seeing as the circumstances that created the test were brought about by the accident of Scoot's and friends being in the wrong place at the wrong time, neither needed to perceive it as a test.

Regardless thank you for the discussion. I shall consult others to see if I can find out which rule trumps which.

[TheGreatEater]

4661320

Best of luck.

[Keeper of time RD]

To anyone who wanted to know the outcome of my research into the topic of the rules of writing.

First off I found the assertion regarding 'competent writers' to be flat out untrue, as I easily able to find books by professional authors with lines like ("Land ho!" cried the lookout.) and ("Are you Thomas Jefferson?" asked another student.)

More important then some token examples however, when I spoke with others that know the rules of writing far better then I, they all gave me the same advice as Mix-Tape Mare. As such I find that I have no choice but to conclude that the rule:

When you have a line of dialogue followed by who said it and how, the whole thing must be treated as a single sentence; you must end the character's dialogue with a comma, not a period, and you do not capitalize the first word outside the closing quote mark unless it's a name. (If the character's dialogue ends with a question or exclamation mark, you use those as usual, but still don't capitalize the next word after.)

is in fact the dominant rule.

[Silver_Lined_Sky]

Minor grammar and spelling issues aside, enjoyable story.
I don't quite understand why it was 3 separate chapters instead of one 8k word block, but still worth reading
Deus Ex Machina was a bit unexpected, but whenever it involves lightning, I'm usually okay with it.

[SpecterMare]

I really enjoyed this story :) you should keep this up! Maybe make your stories longer but it brought a year to my eye. Thank you for making this

[xCobaltRainx]

I think "Blood-Bonded" might have been a better title for the story.

---

The only problem I have with the writing is all of the incorrect word usage throughout. There are quite a few examples of "then" instead of "than" type mistakes. A good sit-down and a dictionary might be beneficial.

The story itself is quite solid. I'd give it 8-9/10.

[Keeper of time RD]

4678997

Ah... right... Then is for time comparisons and chains of events, and than is for comparing objects or states in the present.

Thank you for catching that, it completely slipped my mind to check for that error when doing my editing passes.

I think I fixed the 'them's and 'than's, so if anyone sees that mistake still please let me know and I'll try again.

Interesting title suggestion, though it might be worth noting that blood cells only live something like 2 weeks, so a transfusion still wouldn't make them blood sisters. Hence my choice to focus more on what truly makes them sisters rather then a passing state.

[Matthais Unidostres]

4655812 You should have gotten a shot where Scootaloo is smiling, not with eyes wide with shock.
Anyway, I LOVED THIS STORY!
It was just so powerful and full of love and self sacrifice. My headcannon is that Scootaloo tapped in the Forces of Loyalty that the Tree of Harmony emanates in order to Thunder Punch that gargoyle. It takes strong love and loyalty to do that, and both Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash had it for each other.

[Keeper of time RD]

4766146

I intended to modify the screen shot more then I did when I was making the title picture, however with my low art skill I only managed to make it worse. When I gave up I just went back to the base screen shot and added in the title. Forgive me if I chose not to take several hours of hobby time away from writing for what will amount to a token change to the title image.

I'm glad you enjoyed the story.

Interesting theory, though if you wanted to know my headcannon on the matter, I simply consider kicking lightning without a cloud to be the pinnacle of pegasus weather magic's ability to handle lightning, and Scootlaoo being good at handling lightning is a running theme in my stories. The reason for that can be seen in The Legendary Scooterbolt.

[Gammer14]

A Rainbow and Scootaloo sister fic...Dang you've hit my greatest weakness, I just can't resist reading these fics. I'll track it for now, and read it when I'm able too.

[Spectrum16]

Nice story Really nice
Im mean sure deux ex machina came in to save them from mr gargoyle but.... it was scootaloo so thats new nothing works out for scoots... so ye
And ye good story
Also for the final line you say brake it should be break, Unless if you meant brake as in stop that works to
Thats all enjoy!

[Keeper of time RD]

5427702

Noted and fixed, thanks

[Keeper of time RD]

7089162

Oh wow. I don't know what to say to that... other than thank you.
And sorry I don't log in often enough to see all the the comment notices before they auto delete.

But I do look through my story list from time to time to see if the number of comments has changed. So I do read all the comments on my stories eventually.

And though it may have taken me a week to notice it, when I did read yours it made my day. So again, thank you.

[Noctis Prism]

A truly beautiful and amazing story here! The feels!

[Keeper of time RD]

8671700

Thank you.

Good to see that this story can still brighten someone's day from time to time.