Blackness. All I could see was the black. My ears were buzzing, but I couldn’t feel anything. I was completely numb. I wasn’t sure what had just happened to me. I barely remembered my own name. My brain felt empty, like all my memories had been erased. Thoughts raced through my head trying to piece my memories back together, I tried to force my eyes open, but they remained shut. I wanted to move, but I didn’t even try. I knew my efforts would go to waste.

I’m dead. I thought. I must be dead.

For some reason, I was at peace with this fact. I barely even knew who I was, so I didn’t really know what I had lost if I was really dead.

Suddenly, the buzzing in my ears stopped.

“Scootaloo? Scootaloo, can you hear me?” The voice came to me like a distant whisper. It was distorted and sounded strange, but I recognized it nonetheless.

“Dad…?” I croaked weakly. I wasn’t even sure if I had really said it or if I was just imagining it, so I said it again. “Dad…”

Suddenly, all my memories came flooding back to her. I remembered my whole life, from fillyhood to my current age. I remembered growing up on the battlefield. I remembered all of the training I had done. I remembered the new base, and the new camp. Most importantly, I remembered Apple Bloom, and my dad and my mom… I remembered all the ponies I had met.
And then I remembered the battle.
I remembered how I had flown up with the other pegasi. I remembered dropping bombs on Sombra’s army. I remembered the arrows… And I remembered being shot and plummeting from the sky… But there was nothing else I knew about what had happened to me. My mind raced, desperately trying to figure out where I might be and what had happened.

“Scootaloo!” There was my father’s voice again. This time, I felt a hoof touch my face. The numbness instantly went away and my eyes shot open. I blinked, trying to bring the blurry world into focus.My vision slowly began to clear, and I could make out a stallion who was standing in front of me.

He had a gray coat and deep indigo eyes. His mane was black and it spiked up every which way in a messy cut. It was streaked with white and light gray. His tail was black as well but it did not have streaks like his mane. His muzzle had three large scars running over it and there was another scar under his chin. The stallion’s wings were clipped in several places. But the thing that was most noticeable was his cutie mark. It was two stormclouds with golden lightning bolts striking out of them.

This stallion was my father.

“Dad…!” I tried to yell, but my voice was raspy and rough. I tried to force myself upwards into a sitting position, because I had just realized I had been lying down. But my attempts were useless.

“Shh…. Shh Scootaloo…” My dad whispered as calmly as possible. He helped me lie down in a comfortable position again.

I looked around the room. I was in some brick structure. The walls and ceiling were painted a plain white and the floor was made up of greenish-gray tiles. The door to the room was black and there was a small window on it. Out through the window I could see ponies in hospital garments rushing about. Some looked like doctors and some were nurses. There were a few others passing by the window. Some of these ponies had bandages and a lot of them looked sick, so I assumed they were patients. I was lying on some hospital bed. The sheets were bright, clean white as were the pillows. An IV was in my leg and I noticed my limbs were heavily bandaged.

“Is this… Are we… Am I in the medical wing?” I asked, finally finding my voice.

“Yes.” Came my father’s reply.

I was still very confused. “What happened…?”

My father sighed. He looked terrible, like he hadn’t slept in a week. He looked ten years older than when I had seen him last. “You remember going into your first battle, don’t you?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I remembered flying up and dropping bombs on Sombra’s army. Then the enemies started firing arrows and I think that I got… I got shot. I fell from the sky and I blacked out.”

“Alright… I… I don’t want to worry you, but you were shot…” My father said with a nervous and worried look.

“I presumed…” I said.

My father took a deep breath and continued. “You were lifted out and to the medical wing. I got news of what had happened and came here immediately, but I don’t think you’re mother has heard yet. Either that or she’s been delayed on coming here. I got here, well, early. I was so worried about you… You weren’t awake, but you… You were knocked out for over a week.”

I gasped. “Over a week?! But… but…. How bad is it dad? What happened to me.

My father was hesitating to tell me something. “You took some serious damage…”

He wasn’t going to tell me. I knew he wouldn’t. I looked around my room again and noticed a large mirror on the same wall my bed was pushed up against. I struggled to get out the bed. I put my hooves on it, pushing myself upwards. I winced as searing pain rocketed through my neck, head, limbs and back. But the pain didn’t stop me. I launched myself forward, landing on my hooves. Another jolt of pain went through me. My father was yelling at me to stop, but it was too late. I was already standing in front of the mirror. My legs were wobbly, my I stood there strongly. I lifted my head to look at myself in the glass.

The tip of my right ear was torn off and a large bandage was wrapped around it and the top of my head. My right eyes had a large scar running through it and the skin around both my eyes was bruised. In fact, I looked purple I had so many bruises all over my body. My neck was bandaged, as well as my four legs. There were a few areas on my body where I assumed I had been stitched up. Then, I noticed the massive bandage that was wrapped around my middle. I tried to slowly unfurl my wings, but only the left one came up. A rush of panic went through me and I turned so my right side was facing the mirror. I began to breath heavily, the panic spreading throughout my whole body.

My right wing was gone.

Author's Note

Hey everypony,
This chapter was a little longer than the others, but there was a lot to say! I like leaving stuff as cliffhangers as you probably notice in my chapters. Hope you enjoyed this chapter though, and see you in the next one!