14th of July, 2038, Third Year of the Great Equestrian War
Scoots sat alone in a corner of the armoury, polishing her artificial wings. Dark oil stained her fur for she had skipped showering five days in a row. She had been way too busy supervising the work efforts in the upcoming war, what would later be known as the Battle of Sugar Tree Hill. All the Changeling Optics had been checked, all the armour polished, all the mechanics in working order. She was the Leader of Weapons and Defence Design, but had passed all the duties for the next few hours to her second in command, Uuser Greyhorn.
She tightened the wings securely to her body and stood up. She looked around the armoury. Stallions and mares trotted past, not realising she was there, on what were probably important errands. Scoots trotted off though the massive cave system, where the armouries and weapons were being held. She passed through the many doors, guarded by large stallions and even a few by large mares. She passed though checkpoints with screens that could look right through the disguises of Changelings. This technology was one she helped design with many brilliant scientists. She had been the one who miniaturized the technology into Changeling Optics, so that uses can wear them over one eye during battle, to help distinguish between pony and Changeling. This weapon had been a massive blow against the Changeling armies.
Finally outside, she set her wings in their outstretched position and they began to flap. They were attached to muscles that were the remainder of her original wings, the ones that were never meant to fly. Now soaring through the skies, she thought back to those times…
“Scoots? You okay?” Rainbow Dash asked the pre-teen filly. Scootaloo winced in pain as she tried flapping her wings again.
“I… I don’t… ouch…” Six years, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, and now she was twelve, yet her wings still hadn’t lifted her more than a few centimetres of the ground. Rainbow Dash had tried every trick in the book, but neither one of the pegasi would give up.
One Saturday afternoon, on one of their Sister/learning to fly outings, Scootaloo had had trouble breathing, so they decided to take that day off. The next day, her sides began to hurt if she even moved her wings. Rainbow Dash was by her side the whole time when Scootaloo began to fear that something was terribly wrong.
“…it just happens sometimes… …bones developed wrong… …punctured lung… …life risk… …operation… …so sorry…”
Scootaloo was in a daze, sitting in the Emergency Room, her breathing laboured now. Rainbow Dash sat by the bed, her hoof on Scoots. Scootaloo looked into Dash’s sad eyes, her expression blank. She knew what was happening but she didn’t want to acknowledge anything. One moment her snout was being covered by a mask, the next she was in a recovery bed, her torso bandaged and numb.
She drifted in and out of consciousness, each time seeing one friend or another by her bedside. She could hear Sweetie Belle’s soft voice in the distance singing a lullaby as tears rolled down her cheeks and stained the pillow beneath her.
“What do I do?” Scootaloo asked Rainbow Dash, curled up underneath her wing like she used to as a filly.
“You can do so much, Scoot.” Rainbow Dash encouraged, happy that Scootaloo had begun to speak again after a few weeks. Rainbow Dash couldn’t even imagine losing her wings, and Scoot hadn’t even gotten the chance to use them.
“I want to fly…” Scootaloo said quietly.
Rainbow Dash knocked on the door of Scootaloo’s apartment. She hadn’t heard from her in a few weeks and she had started to worry. Scootaloo was 17 now, almost an adult mare, and Dash assumed she needed her privacy, but she still wanted to make sure she was okay.
Scootaloo came to the door, and smiled as she saw Rainbow. She had pencil lead smudges on her face and bits of pencil shavings in her mane, which she had let grow long and wild.
“Rainbow Dash! I am so glad you’re here! I have shown almost everyone else and I am so excited!” She ran back inside, flinging the door open. Rainbow’s eyes widened as she saw what Scootaloo had been working on. Sketches and blueprints were taped up on the walls and tools and pieces of metal and leather were scattered all around on Scoot’s dining table and on the floor. Medical documents were piled up high on the tabletop and Dash was scared they would topple onto her as she made her way over to the wall. An intricately designed pair of metal biomechanical wings were spread out on a blueprint.
“What do you think?” Scootaloo said from behind her. Dash turned to see Scootaloo with a pair of golden wings strapped on her back. “They’re just a prototype but I’ve scheduled meetings with a few doctors that could possibly make them work in the next few years!” She said, with a huge smile on her face.
“I… this… this is absolutely wonderful!” Rainbow Dash cried, pulling Scootaloo in for a hug. As she let go, a brilliant white flash appeared from Scootaloo’s flank.
After losing her wings, Scootaloo had lost interest in most things and year after year her flank had stayed blank. Everyone had started to wonder if she’d be a blank flank forever, but now Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo stared in wonder at her new cutie mark, a magenta circle and a golden metal wing. Scootaloo looked at her best friend and role model and smiled.
“I’m going to fly, just wait and see!”
Scootaloo smiled to herself as she did a loop. She wondered where Rainbow Dash was kicking butt these days. She couldn’t wait to see her again. But for now, she looked down at herself and thought, I really need a shower…
