Chapter 1: Diagnosis
The summer sun beat down on Ponyville. Ponies took to the shade wherever they could or they decided to just sit inside their homes for the day. A warm breeze flowed through the streets, which were mostly empty save for some vendors, fillies and colts playing, and a few ponies going about their daily lives. Some, however, were having a far from normal day.
Ponyville Hospital held one such pony.
Down past the waiting area and reception, through the winding white halls of the hospital in room 12, sat Scootaloo. She impatiently shuffled her hooves around as she sat on the examining table and the cool, crinkly paper covering it. 45 minutes had passed since her doctor left the room to look over his notes, and Scootaloo was just completely. Utterly. Bored. Every nook and cranny had been examined, all the words on the posters read. Nothing else was left to pass the time.
Exhaling, Scootaloo flopped onto her back, her front hooves crossing over her chest. She stared up at the ceiling in disinterest. Uuuggh, this is taking forever, she thought. If that doctor doesn’t get here soon, I’ll get up and look for him myself.
But Scootaloo knew she wouldn’t. The results of this test were too important to get lost looking for the doctor and waste even more time. Except he’s taking an eternity. I bet I could get lost and find my way back without missing anything.
Scootaloo sighed again and turned over onto her stomach, letting her hooves slip over the edges of the table and dangle. Suddenly, counting the miniscule dots on the wallpaper and connecting them into shapes with her eyes didn’t seem like such a bad idea. At least it would pass the time. Hopefully.
“One, two, three, four, five, six…”
She counted and counted and counted some more, listening to the tick-tock of the clock above the door. When she turned her head to see how much longer she had been waiting, she groaned.
“Five minutes?! Only five minutes?! Sweet Celestia! I don’t think I can take this much longer... Oh no, look, I’m melting from boredom, aaaaahhhhhh….”
With her last sentence, Scootaloo let her back end slip off the edge of the table, with the rest of her body following until she was laying on the cool, clean tile floor, her face pressed against the base of the table.
Oh my Celestia, pleeeaaase hurry up!
Scootaloo continued to wait, her stomach and hooves starting to become as cold as the tiles themselves. She had begun to think that she would sink into the floor and become a part of the room when she heard hoofsteps approaching the room.
The orange pegasus quickly jumped up off the floor, scrambling her way onto the exam table, causing the paper to crinkle loudly, filling the room with the sound of crunching paper. Scootaloo sat up straight, her ears perked, and a determined look on her face.
All of which disappeared when the hoofsteps walked right on past her room and continued down the hallway.
“Oh come on! Really?! Really?!”
She flopped backwards and flailed her hooves in the air out of frustration.
“Aaaaaaauuuu-”
“Ahem, um, excuse me, Miss Scootaloo?”
“AAHH!”
Startled, she tried to jerk her face towards the door, but instead her entire body turned over, and she fell down onto the floor in an embarrassed heap.
Ow.
“Are you alright? Do you need me to help you up?”
“Oh, nah, I’m fine, I got this. Just gotta get my leg over like this... aaand there we go!”
Careful, as to not fumble, fall over again, and embarrass herself further, Scootaloo stood up and got right back onto the table. Looking over at the door, she realised that the doctor must have been right behind the pony who trotted past her room, and he walked in right in the middle of her venting.
She looked back at the doctor, a brown unicorn stallion with a short white mane and tail. His flank bore a stethoscope cutie mark. He wore a white lab coat and carried a clipboard that looked like it was carrying a thousand papers in his right hoof.
“Are you sure?” He asked, concerned.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m good.”
“Alright, if you say so.”
Scootaloo watched as the doctor - what was his name? she couldn’t remember - used his magic to rifle through the mountain of papers, eventually stopping somewhere beneath the upper crust of the small planet that was the clipboard, and pulled out a single slice of paper.
Scootaloo’s heart nearly stopped. This was it. She’d finally get the answer she had been waiting more than 5 years for.
“Anyway, Miss Scootaloo, your results for your MPT are right here. Would you like me to tell you them now, or do you want to wait until a time where your parents can be here?”
Wait for my parents? Scootaloo inwardly scoffed. No way! Just tell meeeeee!
“No! Tell me! Tell me! Tell me! I need to know!”
At this point, she was basically jumping up and down on the table. Excitement filled her to her very core. She just had to know how she did!
“I bet I passed that test so hard, you guys had to make another machine when I was done! I bet my levels were-”
“Miss Scootaloo.”
“-so high that-”
“Scootaloo.”
“-they went off the page and-”
“Scootaloo, stop!”
Scootaloo listened, sitting down on the table and putting on a faux-calm look. With exaggerated calmness, she asked,
“Why yes, doctor? I simply can’t wait to hear how I performed on the test. Do tell me, would you?”
The doctor sighed.
“I’m sorry, Miss Scootaloo.”
Scootaloo tilted her head, confused.
“What do you mean?” She asked, concerned.
“Scootaloo, you failed the test. I’m sorry.”
No, no no no nononono! Scootaloo stood up on the table and backed away from the doctor, only stopping when her rump hit the wall. If looks could kill, her glare would have incinerated the doctor immediately.
“No! You saw me take that test! I did everything you said to, and I did it perfectly! You’re just trying to get a kick outta me! Well you did, and it’s not funny!”
The doctor set the clipboard and the results paper on the counter. This wouldn’t be easy. He gave Scootaloo a pitying half-smile, and started to approach her.
“I’m not joking Scootaloo, this is serious, I know. Yes, you did do everything perfectly, better than any of the other ponies we’ve tested.”
“Then why did I fail?!”
“We both know why, Scootaloo. You- hey, get back here!”
Scootaloo had jumped off the table and was making a mad dash towards the door, unable to hear what the doctor was about to say. When she was halfway there, however, she suddenly found herself caught in the doctor’s magic field. He walked over to her and kneeled down, looking Scootaloo in the eye.
“Scootaloo, you can’t run from this. You simply don’t produce enough magic. In fact, you barely produce any at all, yours are the lowest magic levels I’ve seen in my entire career.”
“But… but what about my wings?”
“Your wings are fine, bigger than average for your age group, actually, which is why you’re able to propel yourself on your scooter and glide for very short distances. But with such low magic levels, I’m afraid you’ll never truly fly.”
This pushed Scootaloo over the edge. With the truth finally put into words, she couldn’t hold herself back anymore. The dam broke, and she began to cry. The doctor moved forward and hugged her, an attempt at comfort, but it was in vain. Scootaloo’s dreams were crushed like a bug, and nothing could change it.
“Why?! Why me?!”
“We’re not sure. Your disorder is so rare, it doesn’t even have an official name. We just call it Pan’s disorder, after the first pony to be diagnosed. There have been only a few dozen cases within the past several decades and no known causes. Unfortunately, there are no known treatments or cures, either.”
What will everybody think? Rainbow Dash, my parents? Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle?
“I wanna go home…” Scootaloo mumbled.
“Alright. Remember to sign out at reception, and to tell your parents. They need to know.”
“I will.”
The doctor stepped away from Scootaloo, releasing her from his magic. The young mare wiped her eyes to hide that she’d been crying and turned to walk out the door. Once out in the hall, she wandered back the way she had come. She felt hollow inside, like someone had just replaced her soul with a black hole.
I thought I’d passed… I did my best, but it wasn’t good enough.
“You’ll never truly fly.”
I’m not a real pegasus. Just a stupid chicken.
Her hooves carried her to the receptionist’s desk, where she half-heartedly signed her name in the sign-out box. The earth pony mare who sat there looked up and smiled at Scootaloo, oblivious to what had happened.
“Have a nice day!”
“Not really, but you too.”
Even though Scootaloo was having the worst day of her life, she knew not to take it out on some random pony. After she said farewell to receptionist, she made her way to the door, stepping outside into the burning summer air.
Just outside the hospital was her old scooter and helmet. She stepped up onto the scooter and buckled on her helmet, vaguely aware of how small both had gotten. Now that she was alone without a pony in sight, the tears began to fall.
Again.
Pushing off the ground, Scootaloo used her wings to help her move along, speeding down the empty road towards her home.
Author's Note
This is my first story. 
Criticism welcome!
