Make a Wish

Make a Wish
by CoolStoryBrony
Chapter IV — Priorities

"Let's just turn right in here," Nurse Redheart said serenely. She pushed Scootaloo's bed into a small room cut off from the rest of the hall by a curtain. Rainbow Dash followed close behind.

"So, uhm..." Rainbow muttered softly, as if she were trying to avoid waking somepony up. "Fill me in. What'd the doc wanna do today?"

"The first step to starting chemotherapy is giving Scootaloo a port," the nurse said. "It's a simple procedure, just some local anesthetic and about an hour in the operating room."

Rainbow Dash shivered at that. Her hoof brushed the tile slightly as she leaned against the wall. Nurse Redheart didn't notice as she pulled the curtain closed behind the three ponies to give them privacy.

"Wh-what's a port?" Scootaloo asked, her jaw stretching in a wide yawn that ended with a squeak.

"It's a thing we use to help us give you the medicine you need to get better." Nurse Redheart smiled at the bedridden filly. "It lets us get you started on treatment quicker and easier, too."

Scootaloo said nothing, her gaze finding its way to the ceiling. She laid her head back on her pillow, blinking away moisture from a sharp ache that was rooted in the base of her neck. Out of the corners of her vision, she saw Nurse Redheart come to the bedside with a velcro strap attached to a tube. With a groan, she closed her eyes, dreading what she knew was coming.

"I'll need to check your vitals before we can get started, Scootaloo," the nurse said as she began wrapping the velcro strap around Scootaloo's foreleg.

"Yeah, yeah..."

"C'mon, Scootaloo, I know it's not fun—"

"You mean you know it sucks," Rainbow Dash interjected. "That stupid leg-squeezer is like getting snagged by a kraken."

Nurse Redheart let out a sigh. "I know it sucks, Scootaloo, but it has to be done. Just close your eyes and think about something else, and it will be over before you know it."

Scootaloo said nothing, crossing her forelegs with a glare.

"Oh, don't be like that," Nurse Redheart chuckled, rolling her eyes. "It's gonna get worse before it gets better."

With a huff, Scootaloo stuck out a foreleg. Glancing to the side, she saw Nurse Redheart flip a switch, and she immediately winced as a growing pressure squeezed her limb. Scootaloo shut her eyes, grimacing, as her leg began to go numb and cold. While the velcro strap grew tighter and tighter, she held her breath, counting the seconds of the torturously slow process until the death grip on her limb finally released. In an instant, the warm flow of blood rushed down her leg, and she let out a grateful sigh, opening her eyes.

She was greeted with the sight of Nurse Redheart holding a syringe in the crook of her hoof.

Scootaloo's eyes shot open. With a gasp that devolved into a fit of coughing, she shuffled herself back from the unholy sight.

"You really don't like needles, do you?" the nurse asked wryly.

"D-does anypony really like n-needles?" Scootaloo squeaked.

"Fair enough," Nurse Redheart said. "Nopony likes getting poked and prodded—"

"Let alone stabbed," Rainbow Dash quipped.

The nurse stifled a groan. "You're not helping, Rainbow Dash. Here, make yourself useful and comfort the poor filly."

"H-hey! I'm not a little kid, y'know!" Scootaloo asserted.

Shrugging, Rainbow Dash took a few steps further into the tiny room and stood by Scootaloo's bedside. She blinked in confusion as Nurse Redheart shot her a glare before turning her attention back to Scootaloo.

"Getting a shot is always pretty crummy, Scootaloo, but it's something you’re gonna have to do," Rainbow said.

"Wh-why's that?" Scootaloo's shrinking pupils never left the syringe in the nurse's grip. "Can't you just do whatever it is y-you're gonna do without stabbing me?"

Rainbow Dash snickered and looked away.

"We could, but it would just hurt even more," the nurse said. "This is a local anesthetic, something that's going to numb your thoracic region while the doctor is putting in your chemotherapy port."

"Nnngh..." Scootaloo shook her head. "Too many big words."

"It'll make sure you don't hurt while we're starting on getting you better."

"Uhm... sounds g-good, I guess?" Scootaloo turned to Rainbow Dash. "It's good, right?"

Rainbow nodded, her face bearing the slightest of smiles. "If it's gonna make you right as rain, then heck yeah, it's good!"

Scootaloo managed to force a grin. Just then, a stinging pressure shot through her foreleg.

"Ow! What the hay was that for?!" she shouted.

"All done!" Nurse Redheart said as she placed the empty syringe into a white plastic container, closing the lid with a click.

Scootaloo blinked at that. "H-huh? Really?" She did nothing further to resist as the nurse placed a folded piece of gauze over the point on her limb that had been injected.

Nurse Redheart nodded. "Really, really. No more needles for today."

"Uhm... Th-thanks, I think..." She shook her head quickly. "W-wait, just for today?"

"C'mon, Scoot, it's not that bad. You're way too tough for some stupid pointed stick to scare you," Rainbow Dash said with a wink.

Scootaloo was silent for a moment, her wide eyes staring up at the pegasus beside her. "Y-you really think so?" she asked.

Rainbow Dash grinned, stretching a wing over Scootaloo. "I know so.

Finishing peeling the velcro strap from Scootaloo's foreleg, Nurse Redheart spoke. "Alright Scootaloo, the medicine should start working in a few minutes. In the meantime, I'm going to take you down to the operating room."

"What about Rainbow Dash?" Scootaloo spoke up from beneath Rainbow's wing.

"Hey, yeah! What about me? I'm not too keen on letting anypony mess around in Scoot's thor ass kick region if I'm not there to keep 'em in line!"

"Thoracic, Rainbow Dash," the nurse deadpanned.

"Only bugs have those, ya wingnut," Rainbow said with a smirk. "Shows what you know."

Nurse Redheart gave Rainbow Dash an unamused stare, her half-lidded eyes rolling. With a deep breath, she turned back to Scootaloo, smiling. "Rainbow Dash is going to stay in the waiting room, and let the doctor do his job."

Scootaloo sunk a bit into the bed.

Frowning, Rainbow Dash tightened her wing's grip on the filly. "Why do you gotta put this thing in her, anyway? Wouldn't it be easier to—I dunno—just use that clear tube thingy you've already got in her leg?

"The intravenous drip, Rainbow Dash, isn't something we can just leave in for the duration of the treatment. I'm sure Scootaloo could tell you it's a bit uncomfortable, and we'd need to change out the needle every few days as well."

Scootaloo shivered. "I don't like needles..."

"And that's why we're using a port instead. Less needles." With a smile, Nurse Redheart knelt down to Scootaloo's level. "Ready to go?" she asked.

Scootaloo bit her lip. She looked up at Rainbow Dash, who was fidgeting uncomfortably, as if she was struggling to keep quiet. She turned back to the nurse, who was smiling gently, waiting patiently for Scootaloo to speak. With a deep breath and a nod, Scootaloo squeaked out, "Y-yeah, let's go."

Nurse Redheart stood up and pulled the room's curtain aside. She positioned herself behind Scootaloo's bed, forcing Rainbow Dash to step aside. As Scootaloo felt herself being pushed into the hall, she heard Rainbow Dash's scratchy voice call out from behind her.

"Good l-luck, kid! I'll be waiting for you!"

With a sigh, Scootaloo slumped down into the bed. Her foreleg was beginning to lose feeling where the nurse had given her the shot, the strange sensation prompting her to poke at the numbing region. Several doors and curtains passed through the edges of her vision, leading her to wonder just how many ponies like her had come and gone through this place, and how many were still in here with her. Surely she wasn't the first pony to ever have surgery.

"H-hey, N-Nurse Redheart?"

"Yes, sweetie?"

Scootaloo swallowed a lump in her throat. "H-have you ever had a surgery before?"

Nurse Redheart paused, and Scootaloo felt the bed slowing down. "Yes, I have," she heard the nurse say.

"D-did... Did it hurt a lot?"

Scootaloo heard a soft laugh from behind. She bit her lip, feeling stupid for having asked such a question.

"It's okay to be scared, Scootaloo. It's a very brave thing to admit it."

"I didn't s-say I was scared!" Scootaloo said in protest, her raised voice leading to a short spurt of coughing.

The bed stopped, and in a blink the nurse was at her side. "Easy, easy now," she said softly. "Take a few deep breaths, and we can go when you feel better.”

Scootaloo slouched into the bed, her gasping breaths interrupted every so often by a cough. She groaned, struggling to roll onto her side and hide her face.

"Don't worry, sweetie," Nurse Redheart said softly. "You won't feel a thing, I promise." She paused. "I know! How about I get you a cupcake from the confectionary after this is over? Sugary sweets can be good for you at times, no matter what some ponies say."

With that, Scootaloo's thoughts turned to the filly that she'd met the day before, to the loud, annoying, happy pony that had surely been to this room before. Suddenly, she felt the bed beginning to move once more. Her every breath was painful, and her eyes shut to hold back tears of uneasy fear. As Nurse Redheart pushed the bed into the operating room, Scootaloo felt a cold shiver run up her spine.

Voices of doctors and interns and nurses echoed in Scootaloo's ears. As Nurse Redheart and another pony helped move her to a small metal table in the center of the room, Scootaloo's mind fixated on Summerset in disbelief, unable to grasp how anypony could go through what Scootaloo was going through right now, and come out smiling on the other side.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Pale moonlight shone through a tiny window in the recovery room, casting a cold glow over Rainbow Dash's slouching figure. She sat in a tiny metal chair in the corner of the room, staring at the floor with her wings splayed out awkwardly behind her. In the center of the room, Scootaloo snored lightly in a bed much larger than her previous one.

Rainbow Dash's mind was a blank slate, most of her worrisome thoughts wearing themselves thin in the long wait during Scootaloo's operation. Rainbow stifled a yawn, fighting to stay awake and keep an eye on Scootaloo for as long as she could.

She lifted her head, her baggy eyes finding a heart monitor across the room. It was silent now, but still drew spiking lines across its tiny screen, each blip an indicator that Rainbow's little friend was holding on.

A slight pressure built up behind her eyes. She let out a heaving sigh, slumping further into the chair, and turned her gaze to Scootaloo.

Rainbow Dash thought of every moment in the past few days that had revolved completely around the filly. Every waking moment had been about her, from the moment Rainbow found her collapsed in a pool of her own blood. She shivered, her memories of that gruesome image of Scootaloo falling, a lethargic, half-lidded gaze in her eyes. Even that morning, when Rainbow Dash heard Scootaloo wheezing out each word, she could tell that the filly just sounded tired.

Just then, the door clicked open, and a thin sliver of light bled in from the hallway.

"Wha-huh? Who's there?"

"Rainbow Dash? You're still awake?" Nurse Redheart asked as she stepped quietly into the room. "It's almost three in the morning!"

Rainbow Dash struggled to sit up. "Y-yeah, well—Nnngh!—somepony's gotta keep an eye on the squirt here."

The nurse held up a clipboard, and said, "That's actually exactly what I'm here to do."

"Doesn't mean I don't wanna do my own li'l midnight watch, okay?" Rainbow Dash said.

"By all means, stay up as late as you want. You're a grown mare, far from me to tell you what to do."

Finally sitting up straight, Rainbow nodded. "Ya got that right!" she said with pride.

"Shhh! Quiet down or you'll wake her up!" Nurse Redheart scolded.

"O-Oh, right, sorry..."

Nurse Redheart walked slowly around the bed, filling out a form on her clipboard silently. Rainbow Dash watched, still standing. She fidgeted, her eyes moving between Scootaloo, the heart monitor, and the nurse. For about a minute, she stood motionless, save for flexing her wings once or twice. Finally, she spoke up. "Uhm, h-hey, Redheart? Can I ask you something?"

"What is it, Rainbow Dash?" the nurse asked through the pen in her teeth.

A deep breath, and then, "I-Is she gonna make it?"

Nurse Redheart stopped writing, looking up from the clipboard. "Excuse me?"

"Look, I'm not as big of an idiot as you'd think," Rainbow Dash said flatly. "I can tell things are pretty grim, so just give it to me straight."

"That's really something the doctor would know more about." Nurse Redheart sighed, dropping the pen. "But if you really want my opinion..."

Rainbow Dash held her breath, nodding.

"You are correct that things are pretty grim. Most ponies come in and can be treated before the symptoms are too severe, but in Scootaloo's case, she's likely been sick for months and not known it."

"So wh-what's that mean, then?" Rainbow Dash asked. "You can still do something about it, right?"

"Yes and no," Nurse Redheart said. "Leukemia can be extremely aggressive, and in Scootaloo's case, the cancer has spread far too much for us to guarantee that we can treat it with things like chemotherapy or radiation."

"W-Well what then?" Rainbow Dash's voice rose slightly. "You've already given up on her?"

"Absolutely not!" Nurse Redheart covered her mouth with a hoof, looking to make sure Scootaloo was still asleep. After confirming the filly hadn't woken up, she continued. "What I meant, Rainbow Dash, was that it's going to be a long, difficult fight for Scootaloo. I want to have every confidence that she'll pull through, I really do..."

"Yeah, yeah," Rainbow Dash droned, "Don't expect a miracle. Well I'm friggin' made of miracles, lady!" She made her way to the window in a blink, popping it open.

Nurse Redheart gasped at the sudden chill. "Rainbow Dash, where are you going? Close the window before Scootaloo wakes up!"

"You go right ahead and close it when I'm gone," Rainbow Dash said, rising from the floor with a single flap. "I'm going to call in a favor."

She twisted around and shot out the window, leaving Ponyville General Hospital and the nurse behind. Each beat of her wings rose her higher and higher as she flew north through Ponyville, and towards the city of Canterlot.