Let me tell you a story
The Legend of Hyracles
Rainbow Dash burst through the hospital doors like a bolt of lightning. She rushed to the front desk where the receptionist had to duck for cover. The pegasus began speaking a mile a minute. “Where is she? Is she okay? Is she alive?”
The receptionist begged her to calm down. “Take it easy, Miss Dash. I’ve been told to expect you and tell you that everything is okay.”
But Rainbow was pulling at her own mane. “Okay? OKAY?” She grabbed the receptionist by the shoulders and hoisted her into the air. “My little buddy almost died and you’re telling me to take it easy? What’s wrong with you?”
“Miss Dash, please!” The receptionist pleaded. “If you don’t calm down I’m afraid I cannot let you in to see the patient.”
This seemed to snap Rainbow out of her hysteria and she slowly lowered the receptionist to the floor, albeit on her side of the desk. Rainbow apologized to her and began to take deep, soothing breaths like Twilight had shown her. “I’m sorry. It’s just…” Her eyes bulged, traces of water threatening to overflow. “I just heard and then I flew all the way from the other side of town and…oh I...” She covered her eyes.
The receptionist dusted herself off. “As I was saying, Miss Dash, your friends arrived earlier and told me you’d be stopping by. Dr. Horses is tending to the patient as we speak and informed me that she’s doing well. Now I can let you in, but only if,”
“Room 312,” Rainbow said, reading off the names of the guest list on the counter. She spotted AJ and Rarity’s names and quickly zipped down the hall.
“Miss Dash!” The receptionist pony called out. She huffed. “Pegasi. I swear they’re more feathers than brains.”
Having been well-acquainted with this hospital, Rainbow Dash easily found the room she was looking for. She flew down the halls so fast that patients and employees had to duck. “Sorry!” She cried half-heartedly. She only cared about one thing at the moment. Upon reaching room 312, she spotted her two friends standing outside the door, talking amongst themselves.
“Rarity. Applejack.” She came to a halt so fast that her friends cringed for fear of being bowled over. “I just heard the news. Is she okay?”
“She’s awright, Rainbow Dash. Our sisters are in there with her right now.” Applejack motioned to the glass window that provided a view of the room. Rainbow Dash peered through to see Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle alongside a hospital bed, speaking to the pegasus therein. On the other side of the bed was Doctor Horses and Nurse Redheart, the latter of whom pointed out Rainbow Dash’s arrival. Seeing her, Dr. Horses gave her instructions and went to door.
“Miss Dash, good to see you again.” The doctor closed the door behind him.
“How is she, doc?” Rainbow fell to her knees before him.
“Ah jus’ told you she was fine,” Applejack said behind her. She gave Rarity an exasperated look and the unicorn stepped up.
“Rainbow, darling. Scootaloo has been in the best of care since she arrived. Dr. Horses has been seeing to her care personally. Isn’t that right, doctor?”
“Hm?” The male unicorn, looked up. “Oh yes. You needn’t worry, Miss Dash. Scootaloo will make a full recovery. In about a month.”
“A month!” Rainbow Dash cried, causing the ponies to cringe.
“Yes, a month.” Dr. Horses massaged his ears. “I’m afraid she suffered a fracture on both her left hind leg and right wing. The leg will heal faster, but the tendons and muscles of a pegasus wing are far more complex and will take more time to heal.” He looked over his notes. “Provided she takes her medication and doesn’t stress herself, she should be flying again in about two months.”
“But she can’t fly at all,” Rainbow Dash spat out. She winced as she said that, as if she’d just revealed a terrible truth. She finally got off the floor and sat down on her rump, head slumping. “She never could fly. She just flutters around.”
Dr. Horses shrugged. “Well then, she’ll be fluttering around in about two months.” He regarded Rainbow Dash with a stern glare. “Please keep the theatrics to a minimum here, Miss Dash. You are in a hospital and I will not have your antics disturbing my patients. Any action to the contrary will see you banned from future visits, is that understood?”
She nodded.
“Good.”
“Can she go inside, doctor?” Rarity asked. “I’m sure Scootaloo would love to see her.”
“Why shoot, Rarity. Rainbow’s the only thing that li’l filly’s been talkin’ about since she got here.” Applejack went on to say, “Why she’s the reason’s she’s here in the first place.” Applejack realized what she said and covered her mouth with her hat, which still earned her a death glare from Rarity.
“What Applejack meant to say, darling, is that Scootaloo has been waiting for you. With the doctor’s permission, I’m sure it would be okay for her to see her now.” Rarity bashed her long eyelashes at Dr. Horses, who cleared his throat and pulled at the collar of his shirt nervously. “Yes, well, she can’t have more than two visitors at a time. The patient needs to rest.”
AJ removed her hat from her face. “That’s awright, doc. Me an’ Apple Bloom hafta be headin’ back t’ the barn anyways.”
“And Sweetie Belle has some chores to do,” Rarity mentioned. “Those drapes aren’t going to clean themselves.”
Applejack looked at her.
“What?” Rarity asked.
“Sometimes, Rarity, ah think ya only keep Sweetie Belle around as a source of cheap labor.”
Rarity chuckled aloud. “Oh, Applejack. You make it sound as if I pay her to work for me.”
The earth pony rolled her eyes. She walked to the window and tapped it twice to get the fillies’ attention. After saying their goodbyes, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle left the room.
“Hi, Rainbow Dash,” Sweetie Belle said.
Rainbow Dash looked at them anxiously. “Has she been asking about me? Was she afraid I wouldn’t come?”
The fillies glanced at each other momentarily.
“Nah,” Apple Bloom said. “She always knew ya’d come. She jus’ wanted t’ ask ya what she’d done wrong.”
“Done wrong?” Rainbow looked confused. “What are you talking about?”
Sweetie Belle began to rub the back of her neck. “Well, she tried to do a variation of your Sonic Rainboom using her scooter and…things kind of went downhill from there.”
“Literally,” Apple Bloom muttered.
“How downhill?” Rainbow asked them.
“You know the big hill beside Whitetail Creek?” Sweetie Belle asked. Rainbow nodded her head. “She landed on the hill behind that one.”
Rainbow gasped. That hill was one of the tallest in Ponyville. She’d flown over it several times when she was cloud-busting. Rugged and unkempt, it was one of the few spots that ponies seemed to avoid on a regular basis. Rocks jutted out of it like thorns and needles, and there was a sheer drop on the other side. “Why in the world would she try to perform a Sonic Rainboom on that deathtrap?”
“She said she felt the need,” Sweetie Belle said.
“The need?” Rainbow pressed.
“For speed,” Apple Bloom huffed, obviously finding the whole scenario ridiculous. “In all honesty, it was one of the dumbest things Scootaloo ever did. No offense,” she said after seeing Rainbow’s expression harden.
“We tried to stop her,” Sweetie Belle pressed. “But Scootaloo can be pretty stubborn.”
Frustrated, Apple Bloom spoke up. “More like reckless! Ah don’t know what she was thinkin’, Rainbow Dash. She could ‘av gotten herself hurt worse than she did! She jus’ had t’ prove herself.”
Rainbow Dash shook her head. “But she just got her cutie mark. What more does she have to prove?”
Behind her, Applejack said, “Maybe ya can find that out. She’s always tryin’ t’ impress ya. Always tryin’ t’ be the next Rainbow Dash.”
Rarity agreed. “You really need to sit down and have a nice long chat with that filly. I shutter to think what might have happened to her if the girls weren’t there. Why if Sweetie Belle tried anything so silly just to emulate me…I don’t know what I’d do with myself.”
Sweetie Belle gave Rarity an odd stare. “Um, Rarity. You don’t ever do anything dangerous.”
“Really? And what would you call assembling a new line with an outdated sewing machine?”
Sweetie Belle shrugged. “Poor logistics planning?”
Applejack chuckled at that. Rarity, however, was in no laughing mood. “Come now, Sweetie Belle. We have much to do back at the boutique. We shall visit your friend again in the morning.”
The unicorns took their leave.
“Bah, Rainbow Dash,” Apple Bloom waved. “Tell Scoots we’ll see her in the mornin’.”
“Ya go easy on the little filly, kay, Rainbow?” Applejack said as she escorted her sister.
Left alone with Dr. Horses, who during this whole time was reading his notes, Rainbow Dash cleared her throat. “So can I go in, doc?”
“Hm? Oh I suppose so.” He opened the door. “Nurse Redheart. Our patient has another visitor.”
Rainbow waited until Nurse Redheart had left the room before entering. “We’ll be back to check up on you soon,” the doctor said. “Just remember that visiting hours end at nine. If you need anything, Nurse Redheart will be just down the hall.”
The nurse winked at Rainbow and followed the doctor down the hall. Alone with at last, Rainbow Dash approached the bed. Seeing Scootaloo in that bed, her broken leg elevated while her wing was in a cast, Rainbow could feel her heart breaking. Scootaloo was more important to her than she’d cared to to admit, like the little sister she always wanted but never had.
“How’s it going, Scootaloo?”
Her head propped up on a pillow, Scootaloo smiled. “Hey, Rainbow Dash! I knew you’d come.”
“Of course I was going to visit you. What you’d think I’d leave you all alone to be entertained by those nerd ponies?”
Scootaloo laughed. Then she winced as pain shot through her broken limbs. “Ow! Don’t make me laugh.”
“Sorry!” Rainbow apologized. She took a seat next to the bed. “Does it hurt?”
“What this?” Scootaloo motioned to her leg with her hoof. “Nah. It’s just a scratch. Doctor says I’ll be up and at ‘em in no time.”
“Two months, Scootaloo.”
“What?”
Rainbow sighed. “Dr. Horses says it will take two months for you to heal completely. That’s a long time.”
But Scootaloo waved it off. “Eh, what does he know? We pegasi are made of sterner stuff than that. You just watch me. I’ll be doing more death-defying stunts before…”
“What were you thinking?” Rainbow exploded all of a sudden, silencing the boastful orange pegasus. “Were you trying to get yourself killed?” Rainbow was on her hind legs now and towered over the bed. She was livid, her eyes burning with rage. “Trying to perform a Sonic Rainboom on the ground is not only crazy, it’s stupid! How could you even think…?” Seeing Scootaloo’s eyes water with tears at that moment, Rainbow settled down. She sat down and did the breathing exercises Twilight taught her. “Look, what you did was very dangerous, Scootaloo. What were you trying to prove?”
Scootaloo wiped the tears from her eyes. “I just wanted to…to show my friends that…” She sniffed loudly.
Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Hey, little buddy.” Scootaloo looked at her. “What’s going on? Is everything okay?”
The little pegasus sniffed again. “I’m sorry, Rainbow. I guess deep down I knew it was dangerous. But I had to try.”
“To try what?” Rainbow pressed her.
“Ever since we got our cutie marks, we’ve spent our time helping ponies learn about their destinies. Just look at mine.” She leaned to the side somewhat so that her cutie mark was apparent. A tri-colored shield with a thunderbolt inside a pegasus wing. “I’m not even sure what my own cutie mark is telling me.”
Rainbow didn’t understand. “What are you talking about? You help ponies discover who they are.”
“But what am I, Rainbow Dash? What does this mean?” She motioned to her cutie mark. “Apple Bloom is an Apple and she’s the heart of our team. Sweetie Belle has a beautiful singing voice and she’s going to be a star one day. Just look at my cute mark. A lighting bolt and a wing. I can’t fly and I sure can’t perform any Sonic Rainboom. So what am I supposed to do? What is my destiny?”
Rainbow was shocked to hear this. “So you thought that by doing something dangerous, you’d figure that out?”
She sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe. It just doesn’t make any sense.”
“Getting yourself in the hospital doesn’t make any sense, Scootaloo.” Rainbow Dash crossed her arms over her chest. She kept her voice steady but stern. “If you had any questions you should have just come to me, or even Twilight. She’s good at solving the whole destiny thing, being a princess and all.”
Scootaloo looked ashamed. “No. This was personal. I didn’t want to get other ponies involved.”
“Look, Scoots. I’m not usually one to say this, but you’ve got to open up about your feelings. It’s a lot better, and safer, than almost getting yourself killed.”
Scootaloo faced the window. Outside, the afternoon was giving way to evening. Crickets could be heard, their song carrying across the wind.
“Scootaloo?” Rainbow followed her gaze to the window. Propped up next to it was her scooter, mangled and bent out of shape. Rainbow winced. “Ouch. That must have been some crash.” When Scootaloo said nothing, she placed a hoof on her head and began to pet her mane. “Talk to me, kid. Otherwise I’ll just get bored. And you do not want to see me bored.”
Finally, the little filly said, “It’s like I said, I don’t know what this cutie mark means. How am I supposed to help other ponies discover their true talents if I don’t even know what mine is? At least if my cutie mark had a scooter it would make sense. What does mine say about me?”
“What does it say about you?” Rainbow laughed out loud. “It says you’re the toughest little filly around.” Rainbow stood up. “You’ve got the moves!” She stood on her hind legs and began to box. “You’ve go the mojo.” Rainbow posed as if standing in front of a camera. “Ain’t no harder working pony around!”
Scootaloo blushed at the complements. “Thanks, Rainbow.”
Seeing she was making some headway with her disturbed charge, Rainbow Dash returned to her seat and said, “Look, maybe your cutie mark doesn’t make sense yet, but it will. It just takes time. Trust me, kid. You’re going to light up the whole sky.”
But Scootaloo’s mood remained dour. “I can’t fly.”
“That doesn’t make you any less special. Not to me. Not to your friends. Not to any pony.”
“But it does matter. To me.” Scootaloo sighed, defeated. “No offense, Rainbow Dash, but you’ll never understand what this is like. I’m a pegasus who can’t fly. It’s like a unicorn without magic. Or an earth pony without…uh,” she groaned. “Maybe I should have the doctor remove my wings and call it even. At least then I’ll make sense.”
Rainbow wasn’t having any of it. “Now you listen to me, kid. You are a great pegasus. You have to stop letting the fact that your wings don’t work as well as others make you think you’re not worth anything.”
“Says the pony who performed a Sonic Rainboom when she was just a filly.”
Rainbow Dash became frustrated. “Geez! Would you forget about the Sonic Rainboom for one second? It does not define me because I don’t let it. Even without it, I’m still the coolest pegasus who ever came out of Cloudsdale.” She pointed to the scooter. “That thing doesn’t make you special. You make it special. The same goes for pegasus wings. Without us they’re just a bunch of feathers. We move the clouds. We create rainbows. We control the skies.”
Scootaloo tried to stretch out her broken wing and winced for the effort. She slumped in her bed. “I know what you’re trying to do, but…” she groaned. “Just forget it.” She turned away from Rainbow Dash. “You’ll never understand what it’s like trying to live up to some pony else’s expectations.”
There was a long moment of uncomfortable silence in which Rainbow fumed. She reached over and turned Scootaloo back around, gently. “You listen and listen good. You have no idea what it was like growing up in Cloudsdale. Life wasn’t easy for me then and it isn’t’ easy for me now. You want to know why?”
Scootaloo shook her head.
“Because I’m still living in some pony else’s shadow.”
Scootaloo was shocked. “Really?”
Rainbow nodded. “Yeah, kid. Really.”
“Whose?” The filly asked her.
Rainbow opened her mouth to say something, stopped, and looked out the window. Her eyes became distant, like she was looking at a another point in time. Finally, she gathered herself and took another deep breath. She’d really have to thank Twilight for these breathing exercises.
“I’m going to tell you a story. It’s about a pegasus just like you.”
Scootaloo stood up straight. “Really?”
“Yup. She lived a long, long time ago, back when Equestria was just starting out.” Rainbow Dash lowered her voice. “This was long before the princesses arrived. Back then, the three pony tribes were all alone in a land full of monsters and crazy magic. Things were so tough, that the ponies cried out to the old gods to send them a hero.”
“And did they?” Scootaloo asked, her eyes wide with fascination.
“And how? Not only did they gods send them a hero, but a pegasus pony at that. This was no ordinary pegasus, because she was blessed with super awesome, amazing abilities!”
Scootaloo became disinterested. “This pony doesn’t sound anything like me.”
“Quiet you!” Rainbow Dash bopped her on the head. “I’m in the zone.” She looked around. Her eyes fell on the lamp on the night stand next to the bed. Rainbow shade back so that the light was full on the adjacent wall. Situating herself beside the lamp, Rainbow lifted her hooves so that their shadows played across the surface of the wall. “The child of a god and a mortal pegasus, this hero would one day grow up to become the greatest in all of Equestria.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.015 seconds
Total duration
1,022 users online
2,291,956 hits today, 2,782,760 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Oh my. Should I be concerned?
Wow, now I'm scared. Tracking this.
Not sure whether that is a threat
Or a challenge.
I love it so far. Who has two thumbs and can't wait for more? This guy.
6615504 Very.
6615678 Thanks for that.
6616018 Perhaps a bit of both.
6616806 Kind of hard to have thumbs if you're a multi-colored miniature horse with hooves, but I won't disappoint!