I Dreamt to Fly

by MrDynasty

16: Recalling.

“Scootaloo, is it?” A doctor said as he stood opposite from Scootaloo, looking through what seemed to be previous medical records as he spoke. “Alright, I need you to tell me exactly what happened so I can get as much information as possible about your injury,” he said, putting the clipboard down and looking to her.

Both Rainbow Dash and Twilight were in the room as well, but only Dash was paying attention as Twilight was just reading up on a book about head injuries. It had been a couple hours since the course ended, at least for Scootaloo anyway. She was still jittery, having a throbbing headache and a small pin like tingle in the back of her head. “…W-what injury? I'm not injured am I?” She asked, having a look of fear on her face.

The doctor quickly shook his head. “No, you’re not injured. I’m talking about what happened two years ago, since I need to know if the information I have here is still correct. We’ll get onto what happened today shortly,” he said as Rainbow Dash inched over to butt in on the conversation.

“I think I might be a better person to ask about what happened two years ago, since she was barely conscious at the time of it happening,” she said, lifting a hoof up.

The doctor nodded to her. “I understand, but if that’s the case then I’d like to have both perspectives, starting with you Scootaloo. So could you tell me what you remember?”

Scootaloo gave a small nod, trying her best to recall what happened. “…I was climbing a tree, trying to find a cloud I might be able to get onto. I don’t know exactly what I was thinking in doing, but I think I was just being silly.” She said, rubbing the back of her head. She was quickly stopped by the doctor, who leaned over and pulled her hoof away from her head.

She continued talking about what she remembered. “I tried jumping to the cloud but I just ended up falling to the ground and… I think I bumped my head on something? No one was very specific when they tried telling me, so all I know is what I was told and what I think happened,” she said, looking over to Rainbow Dash in the hope that she could clarify for her.

The doctor’s attention shifted to Rainbow Dash when she saw Scootaloo’s did. “Think you could tell me what happened, Miss Dash?” He asked as he glanced at the medical reports.

Rainbow Dash nodded to him, sitting forward. “She fell and hit her head on a rock in the ground. It ended up fracturing her skull, so I rushed to Twilight to see if she might be able to help. She suggested we go to a doctor immediately and that I should have done that in the first place. After we went to the hospital, they performed an operation on her to put a metal plate in the back of her skull to cover the fracture.”

The doctor skimmed through the records, seeing if his information was still correct. “That checks out. Just out of curiosity, but do you know why we gave you a metal plate, Scootaloo?” He asked, looking back over to her.

Scootaloo tried thinking about it, but eventually just shook her head in response.

“We gave you a metal plate because you had small fragments of your skull missing. And if we don’t have all the parts to the puzzle, we can’t exactly complete it,” he said, trying to lighten the mood a bit. “So we needed something to cover what you didn’t have anymore. Anyway, we should move onto today, since I’m sure you’re eager to hear our analysis.

Both Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash were paying attention, waiting for the doctor to skim through his notes again. “So what happened was that you were flying in the League, a colt went in-front of you and he kicked your head with his back legs. Sound correct?” He asked, glancing over to Scootaloo, who nodded to him. “You said you experienced a loud ringing in your ears and your eyes couldn’t focus. You said they felt like they were rolling around in your head. Right now you said you have a throbbing headache and the constant feeling of wanting to puke. Correct?” He asked, getting the same nodding response from Scootaloo as he looked back up to her.

“Okay, so nothing serious is wrong with you, you’ll be glad to hear that. What we suspect might have happened is that the metal plate in the back of your head was ‘irritated’ from the kick you took. Don’t worry, it’s still in place and hasn’t moved an inch, but we have a feeling that it’s just been irritated,” he said, putting the notes down to his side. “The back of your head may feel weird for the next couple days, but the feeling of you wanting to puke should disappear much sooner. I recommend you try and take it easy for the rest of the week, give your head time to heal from the beating it took.”

Scootaloo looked over to Rainbow Dash, seemingly worried. “But what about the league? Don’t I have to attend the course tomorrow?” She said, lifting a hoof up.

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but hesitate on her response, not wanting to tell her. “...I’m afraid you classed as DNF, Squirt. It means did not finish. Because you didn’t finish, you were automatically disqualified from the rest of the league,” she said with a raspy tone, knowing that it was probably going to hurt her.

Scootaloo had paused for a couple second before she just looked down to the ground and hiccuped. Her eyes were quickly filled with tears as she couldn’t help but start to cry. It broke Rainbow Dash’s heart seeing Scootaloo cry like that, knowing she felt cheated and unfairly disqualified.

Rainbow Dash didn’t want to stand for this, seeing that some of Scootaloo’s first experiences with flying might have been tainted forever and ever because of this. All because of a colt that couldn’t take losing as an option and was still participating in the league unpunished.

She felt a mix of anger and sadness fight against each other in her mind, knowing she had to do something to at least make sure the colt didn’t get away with what he did. But right now, she wanted to support Scootaloo as best she could.

She trotted over to her and pulled her into a hug, nuzzling her chin against Scootaloo’s head. “Hey, hey… it’s okay. You did incredibly well in the league for just having started flying. I am so, so, so proud of you, Scootaloo. You got farther than any of us could have ever imagined,” She said as she rubbed Scootaloo’s back, trying to comfort her.

Unfortunately, Scootaloo’s crying didn’t stop, even though Rainbow Dash’s words did make her feel a little bit better. She was still upset that not only did she ‘lose’, but she lost to something that wasn’t even her fault.

Rainbow Dash continued to rub her back as she looked over to the doctor. “I suppose we should just go back home and get some rest then?” She asked as the doctor glanced over his notes again.

He looked back up and over to her, giving a small nod. “You should, but if anything out of the ordinary starts to happen to her while she’s resting, please do come back here as soon as possible. She should be completely fine, but it’s just in case,” he said, putting all of the records and notes back into a neat pile.

As much as she didn’t want to, Rainbow Dash had to stop hugging Scootaloo so they could both leave the doctor’s room together. Twilight followed them both out of the room as she had the book she was reading tucked under her wing.

Rainbow Dash was curious on what she was reading, trying to read the cover as they all trotted down the hospital’s long hallway. “…What were you reading? Had to have been interesting since you didn’t say a word during that entire appointment,” she said, still trying to read the obscured cover.

Twilight used her magic to levitate the book out from under her wing, holding it to the side of Rainbow Dash for her to read. “It’s a book about head injuries. It explicitly details nearly everything that can happen to both the organs and the skull itself, including fractures,” Twilight said, putting the book back under her wing as she continued to speak. “I figured I might as well read it now that it’s somewhat relevant.”

Rainbow Dash’s expression turned to that of bored. “I don’t know how you can just sit through a book like that and enjoy it, it just seems way too serious and drab,” she said, making Twilight pout.

“Rainbow Dash, if anything I think YOU’RE the one who should be reading this book. Even if you just read the part about skull fractures,” Twilight said as she lifted a hoof up.

Scootaloo was trotting closely behind Rainbow Dash and Twilight, seemingly stuck in a day dream. She couldn’t help but feel upset, even if she knew Rainbow Dash wasn’t disappointed in her for losing. She felt like a failure, that everything she practised for was thrown down the drain in an instant. Maybe she was too ambitious? Maybe she bit off more than she could chew? Either way, all she wanted to do right now was lie in her bed and forget about today. Maybe when she wakes up she’ll no longer have the burning migraine in the back of her head; but she doubted she’d feel any better mentally.

When they finally got back home, the first thing Scootaloo did was trot into her room and into her cosy bed. Rainbow Dash followed her into her room, sitting down next to her bed to see if she was going to be okay, or at least somewhat okay.

Scootaloo laid to her side in the bed, facing Rainbow Dash and opening her eyes. “You don’t have to sit and watch me, you know,” she said.

Rainbow Dash nodded as she pulled her covers up closer to her with her mouth. “I know I don’t, but I just wanted to see if you’ll be okay,” she said, standing up.

Scootaloo put one of her arms under her pillow and buried the side of her head into it. “I’m as okay as I’ll ever be,” she said in a croaky voice.

Rainbow Dash knew what she said wasn’t true, but she decided it would be best to just let her rest. Before she left, Rainbow Dash gave Scootaloo a small kiss on her forehead, hoping that she’d feel better when she woke up. She then left her room to give her some peace and quiet, shutting the door behind her.

Twilight had followed them back to their house, sitting on the couch and reading where she left off in the book. Rainbow Dash trotted over and sat on the couch as well, looking both worried and annoyed at the same time. She kept trying to think of a way to solve the situation, but it seemed like everything was against her. Even if Scootaloo got back into the league for some reason, she wouldn’t be in any sort of shape to continue flying through the rest of the courses. Rainbow Dash figured the only thing she could do was hope that the colt would be found out and disciplined for what he did, but she doubted that would fix Scootaloo’s mood.

She groaned and rubbed her eyes. “I have no clue what to do right now! Come on Twilight, tell me what I should do to try and fix all of this! You’re so good at fixing seemingly impossible situations, surely you can come up with something that can fix this,” she said as she pleaded to Twilight.

Twilight put down her book and gave a quiet sigh, looking over to Rainbow Dash. “Sorry Rainbow, but I don’t think there’s anything we can do to help. I think it might just be best to do nothing for now,” she said as she had a small frown.

Rainbow Dash slid down on the couch, slouching as she looked to Twilight in the corner of her eye. “Are you serious? We have to be able to do something!” She said, hopping off from the couch and trotting over to her house’s entrance.

Twilight looked concerned, getting off from the couch and following her. “Rainbow Dash, wait! Where are you going? What about Scootaloo?” She asked worryingly.

Rainbow Dash turned around when she got to her front door, having a determined look on her face. “I need to do something, anything! I’m going to go to Spitfire and see if I can at least get that bully out of the competition! Of all ponies, surely she’ll listen to me!” she said, about to go out the front door as she placed her hoof on it.

Twilight pulled her back with her magic and pointed to Scootaloo’s room. “But what about Scootaloo?! She needs your support more than anypony else’s right now! You can’t just leave her alone like that!” she said, making Rainbow Dash pause and look over to her room.

“…I know. But I need to at least try while I can. That’s why I need you to stay here and look over her while I’m gone; I won’t be that long, I promise,” Rainbow Dash said before bursting out the front door, not giving Twilight enough time to respond.

Twilight sighed, trotting back over to the couch to continue reading. Who knows, maybe she will be able to do something to help. At least she could try and give the colt their just deserts.