As Sweetie Belle entered the clubhouse, she noticed Scootaloo looking out the window, tears in her eyes. “Scootaloo, what’s wrong?” Sweetie asked. Scootaloo sniffed a bit before turning to Sweetie.
“I may never fly,” she answered.
“What brought this up?”
“Remembered how we briefly became adults? I thought I would be able to fly by then, but my wings were still just as useless.” Sweetie moved closer.
“It was a magical transformation. Maybe when we really become adults they’ll work.” Scootaloo thought about this for a brief moment.
“I don’t want to be disappointed again.” Scootaloo frowned while flapping her wings. “See? Not much good.”
“Your wings are not useless. You may not be able to fly with them, but you can make yourself go faster on your scooter.” Sweetie encouraged as Scootaloo turned away.
“I want to fly like any pegasus should be able to. You’ve seen that huge peagsus, Bulk Biceps? He has tiny wings on his huge body and even he can fly.” Scootaloo then stood up. “I need to ride this off.”
“Wait, Scootaloo! You don’t have to face this issue alone.” Sweetie held her right front hoof out.
“At least you can use unicorn magic. Apple Bloom can make potions. What do I have?!” She questioned with anger before rushing out of the clubhouse. Scootaloo got on her scooter and pumped her wings rapidly, building up speed. She had no destination in mind, she just kept going. This isn’t fair at all! I helped ponies get their cutie marks and find their life’s purpose, but what do I get? Who helps me?! She wasn’t paying much attention to where she was going as she rode outside of the general town area of Ponyville. Before she knew it, she was riding off a cliff. She snapped to attention, but it was already too late as she was falling. She tried flapping her wings as fast as possible, but that did little to slow her fall. She hoped Rainbow Dash or somepony would save her as she was falling, but no help came as she screamed to the bottom.
When Scootaloo woke up, she realized she was in a hospital bed. Her legs were in a cast wrap and the situation dawned on her. I’m so worthless that I couldn’t even fly to save myself from falling! A mixture of sadness and anger took hold as tears started to cover her eyes. It was not long before the door opened, and Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom arrived.
“Are you okay?!” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Does it look like it?!” Scootaloo asked aggressively, “I’m useless! I fell off a cliff and I couldn’t save myself.”
“Ah won’t let you beat yourself up like this!” Apple Bloom declared.
“It’s too late, look at me! A proper peagsus would have flown to safely.” Scootaloo tried to move her limbs, but the pain reminded her to not try.
“Don’t move. How did ya fall?” Scootaloo paused at Apple Bloom’s question.
“I was riding my scooter faster than ever and I was lost in thought. Then before I knew it, I rode off a cliff.” Scootaloo tried to move again before stopping. Scootaloo and Derpy Hooves would remain friends for their remaining time.
“At least none of the damage will be permanent, right?” Sweetie asked very worrying.
“I hope not, aside from my wings and pride.” Scootaloo answered, feeling defeated.
“We hate seeing you like this.” Sweetie Belle said.
“Ah thought you came to terms with not being able to fly?” Apple Bloom pondered.
“So did I girls.” Scootaloo finally remembered not to move her limbs.
“Ah don’t want to see you feeling sorry for yourself Scootaloo. What would Rainbow Dash do?” Then Scootaloo’s answer came quickly.
“She would have flown.” She answered so matter of fact.
“Ah mean aside from that.” Apple Bloom started to look more worried.
“Not ride off a cliff.”
“True.” Apple Bloom admitted.
“Not helping.” Scootaloo looked annoyed.
“Ah meant she would... yeah... fly. Sorry, I’m not helping am I?”
“Not really.”
“The older ponies will be arriving soon. Please get well soon,” Sweetie said.
“And we can come back at any time if y’all need us,” Apple Bloom informed. “Just call for the nurse.”
“Thanks, you two. At least you can easily find me as it’s not like I’m going anywhere.” Scootaloo realized just how boring her situation was, hurt and unable to do almost anything except having time to reflect further on her failures. She would not have to remain alone for long as mere minutes later, Rainbow Dash arrived.
“Squirt?! I’m so sorry I wasn’t around to catch you. Are you okay?” Rainbow asked as she flew next to Scootaloo.
“Don’t blame yourself, I was the one who fell. I’m more upset about not being able to fly right now.”
“When I heard the news I came as fast as I could. You really should be more careful.” Rainbow answered with deep concern, a look that led to Scootaloo looking even sader.
“I know, I’m sorry I messed up. I just had a painful reminder of how I can’t fly.” Scootaloo almost flapped her wings.
“Squirt, we went over this. You’re awesome despite your flight disability. Look at all you’ve managed to do without flying.”
“Look at you. You would be such a different pony if you couldn’t fly.”
“I don’t claim to know why things turned out the way they did. You can’t live acting like you can do something that you can’t. Please be more careful, I don’t want to see you seriously hurt anymore.” Neither pony said anything for several seconds. I didn’t mean to disappoint my hero.
“I would ask for a warm embrace but that might really hurt right now.” Scootaloo said, as Rainbow started to hover.
“I had flight crashes before. I even ended up in the hospital. I was bullied when I was a filly, called Rainbow Crash. Even the best flyer in all of Equestria makes mistakes every once in a while.”
“Here I am, your biggest fan, the worst flyer admiring the best flyer.”
“You’re way cooler than you give yourself credit for. You helped ponies find their cutie marks even when you didn’t have your own.”
“Your Sonic Rainbloom got your closest friends all their cutie marks in one go.” Scootaloo countered. Rainbow took longer than usual to answer.
“True, but that’s different. Us six are like chosen by destiny or something, although come to think of it, so are you and your friends. I might not know the meaning of them, but your cutie marks do share a similar design. You’re special, even before you had your cutie mark. Don’t let anypony take that away from you, including yourself. And if you ever want to fly, yours truly will let you catch a ride.”
“Thanks Rainbow! I wish I could be more positive about this, but the pain is a reminder of what led to this.”
“Don’t give up, I know you’ll pull through. And that’s the nurse calling me out of the room. Sorry I gotta split so soon, but think about what I said alright?” Just like that, Rainbow flew out of the room, leaving Scootaloo all alone. Half an hour passed before another pony was brought in. Scootaloo got a look at the pony.
“Derpy Hooves? How did you get here?”
“I had a flying accident because I had trouble seeing.” Derpy answered.
“Of course, you would. What is wrong with your eyes?”Scootaloo asked almost as if on auto pilot.
“That wasn’t very nice.” Those words suddenly caused Scootaloo to snap to attention.
“I’m... sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. Today has been a bad day for me and I don’t want to make someone else’s day bad too.”
“Ponies think my crossed eyes means I’m not very smart. I have a hard time reading because of my eyes and it causes me a lot of trouble. It’s a struggle, but I remain strong, especially for my daughter, Dinky.” Derpy smiled.
“I had a scooter accident and rode right off a cliff. I couldn’t even slow down my fall.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I hope you get okay soon.”
“You too Derpy,” Derpy smiled. “I thought I would be a late bloomer and fly someday.”
“Sadly, that doesn’t always work out. Ponies will sometimes be born with extra challenges ahead of them that most other ponies won’t struggle with.” Scootaloo reflected for a moment on Derpy’s words.
“I thought I was just slow to develop proper wings but ever since a magic flower turned me into a fully grown mare for a while, my wings didn’t get any better.”
“Scootaloo, you’re not worthless by any means. You have plenty of ponies and creatures who like you, flight, or no flight. You might have a disability, but you’re not any lesser of a pony for that. If there’s one big takeaway for today I hope it’s that.”
“That’s easy to say when you can fly!” Scootaloo replied faster than even she expected.
“Please calm down, I have issues with my eyes. I’m not blind, but my eyes cross in ways that I can barely control them, and it makes it a lot harder for me to see. I tried many solutions like glasses and even had unicorns try to cast spells to fix my eyesight, but there’s no fixing it. It took me a long time to accept this.” Scootaloo reflected on this for several seconds.
“But there has to be a cure. Twilight must know! But back when I asked her during our Twilight Time about flying, she said the only solution is a temporary wings spell. I don’t think I can keep asking her to do that anytime I want to fly. And Twilight herself gained wings. If only I could gain a second pair of wings to replace these.”
“Let’s not focus on something that may not happen. I know this is going to be hard, but you’ll get used to it. After all, you got by this far without being able to fly. Although... I can see how flight would have saved you from falling off a cliff.”
“We’re both here now because of our disabilities.” Scootaloo reminded.
“But we’re alive. I’m sure you’ll have plenty of ponies to visit you soon enough. I’m sure anypony who truly values you won’t think less of you because you can’t fly. I heard a lot of positive things about you and your friends from Dinky. She told me how much you three helped with other ponies getting their cutie marks and soon, she finally got one, all thanks to you three. You’re not defined by your flight troubles. All that great stuff you achieved did not require you to fly.”
“Ponies called me a chicken. As if having a cutie mark wasn’t enough, I was the blank flank flightless Pegasus. And although I’ve since got my cutie mark, I still can’t fly.”
“Can you use your wings for anything at all?” Derpy inquired.
“I can go faster on my scooter. On a good day I can even hover for a bit. I had ponies like Rainbow Dash talk to me before, telling me I’m special despite my lack of flight. I believed it back then because I thought I would fly when I became older.”
“You’re still young now. And Rainbow Dash is absolutely right. Out first meeting wasn’t so great, I damaged stuff, but we did make up sometime after.”
“My friends and I wished on a magic flower to become adults for a little while. I still couldn’t fly and then it hit me. I may never ever fly.”
“You were magically aged up, so it probably wasn’t the real adult you. The only way to find out is the passing of time. Please don’t be too hopeful to fly later in life. Although you’ll likely never be able to fly on your own, if you focus your energy on that, you’ll get sad and anger. It’s too easy to focus on what you can’t do. It’s better to focus on what your talents are and what you can do. Believe me, I had to learn this throughout my lifetime.
“Have ponies warmed up to you?”
“It wasn’t easy. So many ponies made fun of me for my clumsiness. Some even assumed I wasn’t very smart to the point they would talk about me right in front of me like I wasn’t there. But it wasn’t all doom and gloom. I have my daughter. I have other ponies like Twilight’s group who accepted me for who I am and don’t hold any ill intent due to my sight problems.” The two ponies reflected on many of their past tales as the day turned to night. Scootaloo’s aunts visited her during this time. Scootaloo was quick to fall asleep before Derpy did.
The next day after Scootaloo had her breakfast, she didn’t have much to do but talk to Derpy again. “How do you live like this?”
“One day at a time, eyes forward, or as much as I can make them. It’s not so bad when you’re used to it your whole life. I have something very important to ask you. Do you want to keep feeling sorry for yourself?” This question took Scootaloo moments of pause to finally answer.
“No, of course not. I don’t need to fly to be awesome. I might not be Rainbow Dash, or most other pegasi, but I can be awesome my own way.”
“That’s what I like to hear!”
“If you can deliver mail with crossed eyes, I can do some sick scooter tricks without flying. I’m not going to be entirely happy about this situation, but I don’t want to go through everyday beating myself up over it anymore. I’m glad we met Derpy. I guess I needed to hear it from another pony who also physically struggles.”
“You’re welcomed Scootaloo. If you don’t mind, I would like to come visit your clubhouse sometimes and I can even bring Dinky along. I just need to look at Dinky to remind myself how I handle this every day. You too will find that strength.”
Days later as Scootaloo left the hospital, she was smiling brighter than she had in a long time. As she made it back to the clubhouse, she got on her scooter and took over. Unlike before, this time she paid more attention to her riding, using her wings to asset in her speed and hang time. Nopony can scooter like I can! She thought. Something that would be really cool would be to build a skate park. Yeah, I could get the others and it’ll be so awesome!
Scootaloo returned to the club house shortly afterward. She found Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom inside. “You’re looking really chipper today Scoots,” Sweetie noticed.
“Yeah, you looking like you won the lottery,” Apple Bloom added.
“So, what if I can’t fly, what other ponies can ride a scooter this well? I’m glad it survived the crash, and I could get right back to riding it. I can’t promise I won’t ever lose sight of the important things again, but Derpy is right. It’s so much better not feeling sorry rather I can ever fly or not.” The three friends got into a group hug.
While ultimately Scootaloo would never be able to fly with her wings, she stopped defining her worth by that. Derpy Hooves would never gain normal eyesight, but she continued to pour her heart and soul into her career and into Dinky.
Author's Note
This was a pretty tough one. I've been dealing with major attention span and focus issues lately. I also submitted a story for the contest last year, but this time I wanted to do it better. I hope I at least did that much. Now, unlike last year's submission, I didn't start this one last minute. Although I did started a lot later than I wanted to to the above issues. I really had to push myself to get all of this out even at just 2.5k words. Part of my thinks I forced myself to write this without much enjoyment behind it. I hope not yet I can't help but wonder if I treated this as more of a chore than something I was excited to write.
I guess you can say this was a battle against my attention span issues. Having this story out here finally on time is hopefully a step in the right direction, in that I managed to fight these issues long enough to get something done.
And it turns out several similar stories of this popped up based on the tags this story has. Makes me wonder if this pairing would be original enough for the contest, which I expected it would after searching similar tags earlier. Oh boy, I can only hope.
