Flightless

“Urgh.. ouch…” I opened my eyes weakly, and found myself lying on a bed in a well lit white room, surrounded by two blurry figures. My wings were suspended either side of my body, and my back legs were wrapped in bandages.

“W…where am I?”

“I’m sorry I’m Sorry I'm sorry!!” Sobbed a familiar voice,

“Derpy… what happened…?” My head felt extremely heavy, and just lifting it made me nauseous. My entire body was weak and warm, some of my feathers were missing, and patches of my orange coat had been scorched and were now a dirty dark brown colour.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Was all the mare could say in response to the question.

Then, I heard another voice; a stern, masculine voice coming from the other pony. He stood to my left, and wore a white lab coat.

“You jumped on a storm cloud, and suffered an electric shock.” The doctor informed me, “It’s singed your skin a bit, but with the right treatment, you should be okay in a few days.”

“I’m sorry.” Derpy was really crying, and suddenly the whole situation came flooding back me.

“Wait… how come Derpy wasn’t shocked?” I asked, recalling the event, “She jumped on the storm cloud as well!”

"I was." Derpy sniffed, “I guess I’m… just used to it… I always used to get shocked, when I was.. *sniff* a weather pony… I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

I could tell that Derpy felt awful, and it was difficult to be angry with her when she was crying so much - even in my wrenched state.

"It's... okay." I assured her.

Then I realised something,

“Oh no! The scooters! I’ve got two ponies coming to collect their scooters today! I need to go!”

I started to panic; it must already be past noon, what if they had already tried to fetch their vehicles, and left furiously when they discovered I wasn't home? What if they told other ponies that I was unreliable? What if they told them I didn't care about my customers? My entire career would be over!

The doctor gave me a painfully slow look over, "I'm not sure about...." He started to say,

"Please!" I begged, "I need to go home."

The colt paused for a moment, adjusted his glasses, then sighed, “Well, I suppose since there isn't any serious damage, I will treat your burns, and then we will look into checking you out.

“T…thank you!” I said, overcome with relief.

“However,” He continued, “Your wings will have to rest for a while, and they need to stay bandaged; no flying for a week, understand?”

I glared at the colt, as he suddenly realised who he was talking to.

“Oh urm… I mean, don’t flap them around too much…” The doctor corrected himself, "And try to get lots of rest." On that note, he left the room to fetch my medication.

“I’m… so… sorry.” Derpy cried.

“Yeah, I know.” I said pitifully, “I guess, as long as I get back in time to give those ponies their scooters, then there’s no real harm done."

I thought that might calm her down, but I was wrong, the tears kept coming.

"Rainbow Dash is gonna be so angry." The mare wept sadly.

I felt kinda bad for her right then. Derpy never meant for me to get hurt; she was just trying to make me happy after seeing how much I loved jumping on those rain clouds. It was only meant to be a bit of fun. Things just got a little out of hand, that's all.

“Don’t worry Derpy. A little lightning ain’t gonna get this pegasus down.” I replied, "I don't see any reason to tell Rainbow Dash about this."

The mare sniffed, then she lifted a grey hoof and furiously tried to wipe her eyes, “You’re nice Scootaloo.” She replied..

The doctor returned shortly, and applied some lotion to my wings and hind legs. He also gave me some tablets, warning me that I may feel a bit dizzy for a few days. I promised I'd try and rest up as much as possible, and - after thanking him - we left the hospital, with my wings and hind legs still bandaged.

Derpy offered to pull down a soft rain cloud, and give me a ride home, but I politely declined: just the thought of rain clouds made me want to heave.

We soon arrived at my home, and were greeted by two rather confused male unicorns. The shorter of the two - Snips - was a cheerful young fellow and one of my many idols in Ponyville. His much taller friend - Snails - was a dopey colt who was relatively new to scooting. At first they looked rather annoyed that I was late, but once they noticed the state I was in, they trotted over, with wide eyes full of concern.

“Scootaloo, what happened?” Snails asked, glaring at my scorched coat.

“See I told you there must have been an emergency!” Snips exclaimed, “Scootaloo would never keep us waiting!”

“I’m okay, really, it was just a little accident." I smiled at Derpy, who looked gratefully back at me for not going into more detail.

“It’s cool, long as you’re okay." Snips looked relieved, "So how are our scooters?”

“Better than ever!” I said proudly, trying to ignore my aching body, “I’ll go fetch them for you.”

I trotted around the back, leaving Derpy alone with the two of them whilst I retrieved the vehicles. I’m not sure what happened during that time, but when I returned, they were watching her chase a butterfly around, and trying to mimic it's fluttering with her own wings.

“Here ya go fella’s!” I exclaimed, proudly.

I handed Snips his scooter, which was a short - yet speedy - model. The colt had affectionately named it 'Nipper' due to it's size. Then, I presented Snails scooter, a much taller model with a wider deck - perfect for beginners. Snails named his scooter 'Shelly'.

“Wow Scootaloo! They look even better than before!” Snails complimented my work.

“What can I say? Customer satisfaction is my number one priority!” I winked,

Snips gave Nipper a mini a test ride, “It’s so smooth!!” He said happily.

“And SO shiny!” Snails grinned as he boarded Shelly.

The two rode around in circles, laughing and racing each other.

I meant that with all my heart; nothing makes me feel better than a happy customer, riding around on a scooter I've just fixed up. I enjoyed watching the two having fun, and it completely took my mind off the injuries.

Derpy seemed to have cheered up a lot too. After watching the colts ride around for a while, she hovered above the ground and began following them. Derpy held her front hooves out, as though she was grasping a handle bar, then she lowered her back leg and gave a kick off the ground, pretending to be riding an invisible scooter.

“Brrrrrrrrlllll” She made strange engine noises, which made me laugh - none of the scooters in Ponyville had engines.

I had to admit it; despite her faults, Derpy was a pretty fun pony. She seemed to find enjoyment in everything, and I could definitely see why Rainbow Dash considered her a friend. From now on, I would just have to be more sensible; I'd have to look out for Derpy and try not to let her cause any more trouble. If I did that, the two of us could have all sorts of safe fun together.

"Derpy you're scooters almost as fast as mine!" Snails laughed.

“Mine's even faster!” Snips joined in. "Although it's probably just my incredible skills."

"Pfft! Alright, how about a race?" Snails suggested.

"Bring it on!" Snips accepted the challenge, "Derpy, you in?"

I saw the pegasus's face light up, "Yes!" She said excitedly, "I love racing!"

"Okay, where to?" Snips asked,

"How about..." Derpy looked over toward the town, then noticed me shaking my head, and replied, "just to that bridge over there?"

She pointed in the direction of a small stream that ran through Ponyville. The bridge wasn't far away, and there were no buildings near that route. It looked pretty clear overall, and the skies were still grey, and so most of the ponies were now indoors calmly waiting for the rain. I was actually quite impressed by her choice; I guess Derpy does learn from her mistakes after  all.

"Sure!" The unicorn colts boarded their rides.

Derpy put one back hoof on the ground, then flapped her wings and lifted her upper body. She revved her imaginary scooter, and started making a quiet "Bllllll" noise, as though she had started it's none-existent engine.

"Ready?" Said snips,

"Steady," Said Snails.

And then, the butterfly came back.

"Go!" They shouted together, and sped over towards the bridge.

It took me a few seconds to notice that Derpy wasn't with them ...she was watching the butterfly again.

"Derpy! Go!" I called. For some reason, I actually really wanted her to win this.

The mare gasped, then fluttered her wings as fast as she could and flew off at the speed of light making a much louder "BLLLLL" noise.

She was leaning from side to side, swaying and dodging rocks and stumps. I began to wonder what Derpy would be like on an actual scooter; she was doing a pretty good job of miming it.

Derpy got pretty excited when caught up to the two unicorns. She flapped her wings faster, and accelerated so quickly, I was almost certain that she was going to pass them both.

Then, Derpy swerved, and crashed right into Snails.

The two fell forwards at such a force that they rolled through the air, Derpy didn't stop flapping, and when Snips turned to see what was going on, he too was caught in the collision.

"AhhhhhhhhHHHHHHH!" They screamed at the top of their lungs, unable to prevent themselves from being thrown off course.

I rushed over to meet them as fast as my wounded legs would carry me, but there was so much dust, I could barely make out the three ponies; I just saw a colourful bundle of fur and metal rolling down the hill before the bridge. Then, I heard a bang, a smash, and a loud splash as they hit the stream.

It took me a while to catch up, but when I did, my heart sank at the sight of two mangled scooters lying in the mud on the bank.

Snips crawled out of the shallow water first, he was gasping, and struggling to walk. Snails followed behind, and the two of them just stood there, looking at their vehicles in utter devastation.

The handle bars were bent, the boards were crooked, and wheels were missing from both of them.

Derpy didn't even bother getting out of the water, she just sat there looking utterly horrified, and very, very guilty.

“Wh… what have you done?” Snips gasped at the sight of his scooter; he had never seen it in such a state.

“I’m sorry I’m sorry’!” Derpy started again - I think that might be her catchphrase.

“Our scooters!” Snails was equally distraught.

“I’m sorry I’m sorry! I'm so sorry!!!” Derpy was on the brink of tears again.

I felt awful for the unicorns, and to be honest, a little angry with Derpy, but...

“Guy’s, this is nothing. I’ll fix them up.” I tried to calm my customers down. "I will... I'll fix them up today, you can have them back tomorrow, okay?"

"But... how?" Snails asked doubtfully, "Look at the state of Shelly... I never seen her so bad..."

"And Nipper." Snips was trying not to cry himself.

"Guys. I'm Scootaloo remember? Ponyville's number one mechanic and scooting sensation! I will fix them, by tomorrow. I promise." I assured them.

"O...okay." Snips replied, "We'll be back tomorrow then..."

Snails stroked Shelly's handle bar, "Yeah, tomorrow."

I smiled at them as they left; I'm getting pretty good at giving fake smiles lately.

"Bye guys, and don't worry. Your scooters will be fine."

Once the two colts had disappeared over the horizon, I turned to Derpy.

"I'm sorry." She said.

"I know." I replied, and reached out my hoof, to help her out of the stream.

Without another word, me and Derpy carried the dismantled scooters back to my home.

"I think these are probably going to take me a while." I said, trying to remain calm.

Derpy looked around a little, "M... maybe I could help you wit...." She started to say,

I raised an eyebrow.

"O...okay... I'll just let you get on with... urm... I'll see you... tomorrow?" She asked, hopefully.

"Yeah... sure." I replied.