Scootaloo's Wings
The night was dark and overcast. The light of the moon was hidden behind a bunch of clouds which threatened to spill rain over Ponyville. Windwalker, the mare on duty at the Ponyville Orphan's Home, had just settled down with a cup of coffee and the day's paper. All the fillies and colts were finally asleep in their beds and she could relax.
She'd barely taken a sip of her coffee when there was an urgent banging on the front door. Quickly, she put the coffee aside and trotted to the door, opening it only to see that nopony was there. She was about to close it again when she heard a wail. Windwalker looked down and at her feet was a small bundle wrapped in a dark blanket. It was a baby. Windwalker scooped up the tiny infant in one foreleg, cradling her close as she closed the door behind her and went back into the orphanage. Merilee, who'd been woken by the noise, came to see what was going on.
"Windy..did we..yup. Looks like we did." Merilee sighed. The orphanage was bursting at the seams, yet there was another little one to look after. Merilee mentally tried to figure out where they'd put the newest edition. "Did you at least get to talk to the mother, ask her how old this one is?" Merilee asked and Windy shook her head.
"Afraid not, Merrilee. All I saw was somepony in a dark hood and cloak running away. I was about to close the door when I heard the baby cry." Merilee told her. As they walked back towards where the nursey was, Merilee pulled the blanket away from the baby a little more. Around the baby's neck was a string...and a note, with a broken locket taped to it.
To whomever finds this filly,
Her name is Scootaloo. Please take good care of her. I will come back to get her one day. She will know me because I will have the other half of this locket. Tell her I love her very much.
The note was left unsigned. Merilee shook her head as she settled Scootaloo, who'd slept through the entire incident, into a basinette.
Scootaloo grew, as other little ponies do. But her wings, for she was a pegasus, did not grow as they were supposed to.
"Well..I suspected this MIGHT happen. You have no idea who her parents are?" Dr. Carthorse asked Merilee, who shook her head.
"Not a clue, Dr. Carthorse...somepony just dropped her off in the middle of the night one night when she was just a few days old." Merilee said with a sad sigh. Dr. Carthorse flipped his folder closed and set it on a table. He removed his glasses and gave Merilee a very serious look.
"Well, Scootaloo is very healthy and she's growing just as she should..except for her wings, as you may have noticed. Now, I can do further tests but what I suspect is happening is that she has a rather unusual condition. I realize that you don't know who her parents are, but I suspect that one of them was a pegasus and the other an Earth pony. Very rarely, when those two types of ponies produce an offspring, for whatever reason, the offspring's wings never grow properly. It has something to do with the Earth pony in them..it stunts the wings. I can perform a spell on her that MIGHT help her wings grow and it might not. There's just no way to tell until I actually do it." he told her, the tip of his horn glowing just the slightest bit. Merilee bit her lip.
"Will..will it hurt?" she asked, concerned only for what Scootaloo thought.
"Yes. The spell stretches the bones and muscles of the wings to make them larger, more developed." Dr. Carthorse was going to pull no punches. Merilee took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"I know that the decision is ultimately up to me about this, but I want to ask Scootaloo what she thinks. She's old enough to know and understand the truth..."Merilee said. Dr. Carthorse nodded.
"Bring her back here next week, if you decide to go through with it. And I hope you do, Merrilee. Because she looks like a pegasus, she's going to be treated like one. And children can be incredibly cruel to somebody who's..different. When it becomes evident that Scootaloo cannot..and most likely will not...ever learn to fly properly, she could be teased or bullied by the other pegasi children. It will be..rough..for her, seeing all the others fly while she herself remains earthbound." The doctor shook his head sadly and replaced his glasses on his nose, shoving them into place with his hoof.
Back at the orphanage, Merilee called Scootaloo into her office. The young filly bounded in, cradling her new scooter with a smile on her face. Merilee indicated she should close the door and sit down. Suddenly Scootaloo's smile vanished as she laid the scooter aside and sat in one of the hard wooden chairs that stood before Merilee's massive desk.
"Scootaloo, you know that recently you saw Dr. Carthorse for your..er..annual check up. And..well. There's no good way to say this, so I might as well say it straight out. There is a problem with your wings, Scootaloo." Merilee said, biting her lip. She wasn't entirely sure how the young filly would react. Scootaloo flexed her undersized wings.
"Wh..what's wrong with my wings?" she asked, suddenly scared.
"Well..what the doctor suspects is that one of your parents was a pegasus..and the other an Earth pony. He said that sometimes, when that is the case, then any offspring who are born with wings..like you were..have underdeveloped wings. Their wings never grow properly and they can't fly." Merilee explained as gently as she could. Scootaloo's eyes went wide and she turned her head slightly to look at one of her wings. She'd wondered why they were so small compared to some of the other pegasus colts and fillies she knew. Even Jingle Belle, who was a year younger than she, had bigger wings than she did. A few tears escaped Scootaloo's eyes and rolled down her muzzle. She wiped them away awkwardly.
"So, I'll never..never fly?" she asked, trying not to cry. She pushed her hot pink mane out of her eyes and dropped her head.
"There is one thing Dr. Carthorse said he can try..but I'll only allow if it it's what YOU want, Scootaloo. He can perform a spell that will make your wings bigger by stretching the bones and muscles. But it will hurt, I won't lie to you about that." Merilee came around the desk and put her forelegs around the tiny filly, hugging her. Scootaloo couldn't hold back anymore at that point and she just sobbed into Merilee's chest. She'd always known she was different, but she had no idea how different until the revelation that she might never fly. It was like having her heart ripped into pieces and stomped on the ground.
"I wanna do it. I wanna have the operation..or whatever it is. I can't..I can't imagine never getting to fly, Miss Merilee. I'm a pegasus..and pegasi are supposed to fly. I belong up there..with the other pegasi." Scootaloo reached towards the sky, looking upwards as a few last tears rolled down her cheeks.
A few days later, Merilee accompanied Scootaloo to the Ponyville Hospital, where Dr. Carthorse and his nurse, Nurse Horsefeather, were waiting. The nurse helped Scootaloo onto a gurney and guided her into the right position on her belly with her wings stretched out. Merilee gave Scootaloo a kiss.
"I'll be right outside when you're ready." she reassured her and walked out of the room, feeling nervous.
"This is really going to hurt Scootaloo, but if it works, your wings will be as normal as they possibly can be." Dr. Carthorse told her and Scootaloo nodded, closing her eyes tight. The tip of the doctor's horn began to glow and Scootaloo felt a tearing sensation in both wings. It felt as if they were lengthening, the muscles getting stronger. She gritted her teeth against the horrible pain she was enduring, determined not to cry out as the doctor concentrated on the task at hand.
After what seemed like forever, he was finished. Scootaloo turned her head to glimpse at her new bigger, stronger wings..but they were just the same. Doctor Carthorse shook his head.
"It didn't work, Scootaloo. The minute I stopped focusing on the spell, your wings shrank back to their original size." he told her, not wanting to tell her that they'd actually shrank even more than that so they were smaller than they had been to start out with. Scootaloo slid off the table, her head drooping. She willed herself not to cry.
"Thank you..thank you for trying, Dr. Carthorse. I..guess I'll just have to learn to live with it." she said sadly. Merilee saw the disappointed look on her face.
"You'll be ok, Scootaloo." she told her lamely and Scootaloo just pushed herself on her scooter down the street. She gave her wings a lazy flap before tucking them against her sides.
"No I won't. I'm a pegasus that can't fly. What does that make me? Nothing!" Scootaloo asserted, storming into the orphanage and up to the room she shared with three other fillies. Fortunately for her, none of them were home when she flung herself onto the bed and began to cry so hard her little body shook.
Merilee sat down in her office and shuffled papers. Her twin sister, Cheerilee, knocked on the door.
"I heard about Scootaloo's failed..operation." Cheerilee said, sitting down cautiously.
"I just don't know what to do, Cheer.."Merrilee said sadly, sighing. "At least she starts school soon with you. Maybe..maybe she'll meet some friends who won't care that she can't fly." Merilee said, feeling hopeless. Cheerilee gave her sister a hug.
"I know she will." she replied cheerfully. It was hard to upset her, her nature was so sunny and cheery.
Over the next couple of weeks, Scootaloo practiced riding her new scooter. She'd learned to flap her wings very quickly, the way a hummingbird does and she was able to really zip along at high speed that way. It wasn't flying..but it was close. It was as close as she would ever get.