Chapter Twelve

The Two Sisters

Scootaloo was awake.

Rainbow Dash didn't know how she should take that news. Of course she was overjoyed that her sister was okay, but at the same time she was unsure about how she was going to tell Scootaloo that it was her fault she got hurt in the first place.

Dash just sat staring at the nurse who brought the news until Twilight broke the silence.

"Oh, that's wonderful! Rainbow, aren't you happy?"

"Uhh…y-yeah," Dash stammered, "of course I am! But, there's just something I don't know what to do about."

"What is it?" asked Twilight.

Dash made eye contact with seemingly everyone at once.

"I don't know how to tell her it was my fault, that…that I'm the reason she and all of us are even here."

"Whatever do you mean?" asked Rarity.

Rainbow Dash looked sullenly at her lap.

"Yesterday morning I told the matrons to keep Scootaloo there at the orphanage." Dash looked back up with a weak smile. "That way I could, you know, surprise her when she woke up in her new bed the next morning."

Everyone except Twilight and Fluttershy were somewhat taken aback.

"And I felt her wing on the ambulance ride here;" Dash continued, "it was broken. I know for a fact that no matter what I do she'll never forgive me for putting her through all of this, especially if it handicapped her in some way."

"Oh Rainbow," comforted Applejack, "you and all of us know that she loves yah. Of course she'd forgive you. Even if she can't, yah know, fly no more." The cowboy-hatted mare offered a sympathetic smile.

Rainbow Dash scowled at her friend's unintentional ignorance.

"Do you know what it's like to have somepony tell you that you probably won't ever do what you're built to do?"

Applejack drew back, and Dash looked to all of her friends for an answer. She received nothing but silence, however.

"It's terrifying." She elaborated "When I was just about to turn six, I was told I would never fly, and I was devastated! Obviously I beat the doctor's diagnosis by a pretty huge margin, but Scootaloo won't if that beam damaged her wing beyond repair!" Dash was shouting and throwing her forelegs about in the air as she explained the gravity of the situation. "And to Scootaloo, flight is everything right now! It was something her and I could do together, and something that would allow her to truly feel like somepony worth noticing! There's no WAY she'd forgive me for taking that from her!"

Rainbow Dash was working herself into a frenzy, and as a result she began to cough and wheeze uncontrollably. A large cup full of water then floated over to Dash, to which the cyan mare grabbed and gulped down greedily.

"Thanks, Twilight," she said after a few gasps.

Dash sat the glass down on the nightstand, then looked down at her lap for some time. She gathered her thoughts and carefully formulated her words before lifting her head again and breaking the silence.

"Please, nopony tell her it was my fault," she plead.

Twilight scrunched her face.

"If I remember correctly, there was a certain secret Scootaloo entrusted you with, and you broke your promise not to tell. So why should we keep yours?"

Dash's ears folded back. To her, the level of her hypocrisy was astounding, and she mentally kicked herself for it.

"I know, but this is different from that. Back when I told you guys her secret, I knew for a fact that there was no way she could have stayed mad at me, if she did get mad at all. But this is serious. If she finds out that she can't fly because of me, then nothing I do will make it up to her."

The seven ponies standing shifted uneasily on their hooves. They all could see the point Dash was making. The filly couldn't have gotten mad, because she would have seen that Dash had every intention of making it up to Scootaloo by adopting her; officially giving her a home. And because she would be given a new home she can be proud of, there'd be no reason to keep her silly secret anymore.

Finally, after several more moments of silence, Twilight broke the quiet air.

"Alright, Rainbow Dash, I promise not to tell. And I think everypony agrees with me, right?" She looked back to the nodding heads of her friends. "And to be honest, I'd probably be devastated too if I lost my horn and couldn't use magic anymore."

"Thanks guys" Dash said as she surveyed their faces.

"So what are we waiting for?" inquired Applebloom energetically.

"Yeah! Let's go see how Scootaloo's doing!" chimed Sweetie Belle with an equally powerful tone.

Rainbow Dash lifted the covers and revealed further bandaging. She winced as she put her weight down on her legs, but, luckily, this time they held up. The group exited the room to find the nurse waiting in the hall outside.

The gray unicorn with her curly blue mane led the way down to the pediatric wing. She had eight ponies in tow, with Dash in the lead right behind her.

After passing many rooms, hallways and offices, the group finally made it to their destination. The nurse stopped in front of a door, and pointed to the window. Dash ignored her pain and rushed to the glass to peer inside.

There sat that special, special filly, awake, with a bandage wrapped around her head. Her left wing was folded in, to Dash's surprise, but it still had a bandage of its own. Scootaloo was speaking to a light green earth pony nurse with a black mane held in a bun, listening as she instructed how to use her spritzer bottle full of foul-tasting medicine.

The gray nurse tapped on the glass and caught her colleagues' attention, who motioned for them to enter. The gray nurse opened the door to let Dash in, but stopped the others as they attempted their own entrances.

"I can tell they need a moment alone. Besides, Scootaloo's doctor needs to go over her injuries; she had a relatively severe one."

The rest of the ponies in the group were disappointed, but nodded their understanding and sat on the chairs in the hall. Inside the room, Dash was hugging and nuzzling Scootaloo to no end.

"Ehh, hey, Rainbow Dash…urhhgh, please sto-STOP! STOP, OW THAT'S MY WING!" Scootaloo shouted as Dash accidentally touched the damaged appendage.

"Heh heh, sorry Squirt, just glad to see that you're okay."

"Yeah, thanks to you."

"Heh, yeah, when I saw you under that beam I almost flipped way out! Luckily I stayed awesome and got you out of there."

Dash held her gaze on Scootaloo, and her heart filled with pride. Just the sight of the little filly smiling up at her made her feel as though there were no evil entities in the world; that no matter what happened, nothing would separate them. However, she felt that her current worst fear would soon be addressed.

"Hello, Miss Dash" said a beige coated stallion with a brown mane. Dash looked up at this vaguely familiar and subconsciously loathed doctor.

She let go of her sister and got back on four legs. After searching for where she knew him from, she realized that this was the doctor that oversaw her own wing injury. "Oh hey, Doctor Stable!"

"Yes, yes, hello. May we get to Scootaloo's injuries now?" asked the doctor.

Dash was panicking on the inside, but somewhat successfully pulled off a cool act.

"Sure, what's going on?"

Stable pulled a large, clear, black and white sheet out of a folder and pinned it on a square light on the wall. The sheet featured an image of a young pegasus wing, with a small but noticeable fracture running a short way down one of the bones. Dash was nearly overcome with dismay as she noticed the break.

"Now, as you can see here," said Stable as he pointed his hoof at the broken bone, "the humerus of Scootaloo's left wing has suffered a small hairline fracture."

"S-so…" Dash began shakily, "i-is that bad? Like, can it be fixed?" Rainbow Dash felt her heart racing as she prepared for what she believed to be the worst news she'd hear since her own diagnosis eleven years ago.

"Well, of course it can be fixed! It already is, practically," Stable began. "What you had a few months ago, Miss Dash, was a compound fracture, meaning it was in two pieces. And you were out of here in a week! What we have here is a stable fracture, and I predict little Scootaloo will be checked out and back home this afternoon. You pegasi are naturally fast healers." Stable ended his diagnosis with a practiced smile.

Waves of warm relief rushed over Rainbow Dash, who almost passed out from the ebbing of her dimming panic. All of her fears dissolved the moment she let her held breath out of her lungs.

Dash was seemingly unaware of the fact that she was panting like a mad dog.

"Um, Rainbow Dash, are you okay?" asked Scootaloo as she nudged her sister's side.

Dash breathed heavily a while longer before answering the question.

"Yeah…yeah…I'm okay…it's just…I-I thought your wing was broken really bad…and…and I was worried that you wouldn't be able t-to fly anymore…"

Dash put her front hooves up on the bed and nuzzled the orange filly whose eyes were wide, watery saucers.

"You were…worried about me?" asked the orange filly.

Dash looked at her sister with a smile that only family could give.

"What kind of question is that? Of course I was worried about'cha! You're my sister!"

Scootaloo stared into the older pony's eyes and shed a tear from her own. She wrapped her front hooves around Dash's neck, who in turn wrapped one cyan arm around the small body. The two stayed in their embrace for what seemed to them like hours before an "ahem" from Stable made Dash draw her face away to look at the impatient doctor.

"Another thing," said Stable as he walked over to the bed. "Her wing had been dislocated. And while she will be flying again soon, it is important that she stays grounded for at least a few days so her wing can heal properly."

Scootaloo emitted a deep and painful groan.

"Oh, come on! I just barely figured out how to fly, and now I can't? This is SO lame!"

Dash chuckled a bit at her sister's anguish. "I know how you feel right now, Squirt. But take it from me, do what he says or you're going to stay out of the air for longer than you need to."

"Alright, Miss Dash," said Stable. "Aside from the problems in her wing, Scootaloo has nothing else ailing her that's too different from what you have." He indicated the small bandages that adorned the filly in a similar fashion to Dash.

Stable exited the room, and the gray nurse entered followed by Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and the other two Crusaders. Dash looked quizzically at the shortened group. She got out of her perched position and allowed Scootaloo's two friends to jump onto the bed to begin chattering about Celestia knows what.

"Hey, where did the other two go?" she asked.

"Oh," said Fluttershy, "everypony else had other things they needed to do, so they left after they saw that Scootaloo was okay."

"Ah," replied Dash.

The two pegasi were then approached by the gray unicorn nurse.

"Um, excuse me, Miss Dash? If you aren't too busy, may I have a word with you outside?"

Dash looked at the nurse, then to Fluttershy who shrugged her shoulders. Dash did the same, and followed the nurse out into the hallway.

"What's up?" asked Dash.

The nurse looked at the stitched-up pegasus who had just been through physical and emotional hell and realized how small her own problem was.

"Oh, it's nothing major, just a small complaint," she began. "Now I hope that there isn't a next time, but if there is, please be more truthful with your relationships to others. It's just that it makes the whole record searching process go a little more smoothly."

Dash cocked an eyebrow at the gray unicorn. "I'm sorry," she said with a chuckle, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, well, you told me last night that Scootaloo was your adoptive sister, but you are in fact real sisters."

Dash laughed at the joke. "Oh, yeah, I know we're close as hay, and I love her like a sister, but no, we're not related."

The nurse's eyes widened. "Oh…my…goodness."

Dash was starting to get concerned.

"Do you not know?" the nurse asked.

"Know what?" Dash replied with a worried look.

"Oh my." The nurse was starting to breathe more heavily. "I-I was looking at both of your records at the same time, and I noticed that both birth certificates had the same parents listed. I thought that you hadn't told me your relation because you were in shock, and probably somewhat delirious."

Dash stood staring with her jaw to the floor for several moments before snapping out of her trance. She closed her jaw, tightened her face, and spoke two very clear words to the nurse.

"Show me"

---

Two ponies, one grimacing, were racing down the hospital hallways towards the main office.

"It's just down here!" called the nurse as she noticed that Dash was in pain.

Clenching her teeth, Dash kept up with the nurse as they flew past rooms and doctors towards the office.

The gray nurse slowed to a stop in front of a wooden door, floated a key into the lock, and opened it.

Piles of papers adorned shelves inside the dark room. Filing cabinets were pushed up against the wall, and a few of them were pulled open. Stepping over a few stacks of papers that littered the floor, the nurse reached a desk where she flicked a switch on a lamp, causing it to illuminate the room.

Closing the door with her hind leg, Dash sealed the world away. The cyan mare joined the nurse at the desk and stood on the opposite side. The gray unicorn ignited her magic and opened two filing cabinet drawers. She lifted two folders out of the drawers, then closed them again. Floating the folders toward the two ponies, she sifted through the papers inside them.

Finding the documents she was looking for, the nurse slid two identical documents out of both folders, and laid them in front of Dash.

The cyan mare, whose eyes were still adjusting, looked over one and found it to be a copy of her birth certificate.

---

NAME: Rainbow Dash

COAT: Cyan

MANE/TAIL: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet

EYES: Cerise

SEX: Female

FATHER: Rainbow Blade

MOTHER: Sundown

Cloud Central Hospital

March 1, -

---

"Everything normal here" thought Dash as she flicked her eyes to the other document.

---

NAME: Scootie-Lou

COAT: Gamboge

MANE/TAIL: Magenta

EYES: Purple

SEX: Female

FATHER: Rainbow Blade

MOTHER: Sundown

Cloud Central Hospital

April 2, -

---

The hot feeling of adrenaline in Rainbow Dash's gut that she had been experiencing since she was told outside Scootaloo's room climaxed as she read the names of her sister's parents. Dash took a moment after the rush somewhat subsided to go over the spelling of the names, but she found the lettering to be exactly the same. She fought to understand how her parents' names got onto Scootaloo's birth certificate. The mare couldn't believe what she was seeing, yet there it was as plain as day. The two pegasi who had gotten so close recently had had the same parents this entire time. The cyan mare didn't know if it was fate or pure luck; but whatever the reason, she had been delivered a family member in the form of the filly she had already grown to love so dearly.

Tears dripped down onto Scootaloo's birth certificate from Dash's reddened, trembling face. The pegasus looked up to into the eyes of her unicorn companion who offered a compassionate smile. Dash opened and closed her mouth repeatedly, but no words came out. Stunned silent, Dash lowered her head to rest on her legs that were up on the desk.

Her shoulders heaving and face contorting, Dash absentmindedly made her wet and reddened eyes flick back and forth between the two documents as she attempted to understand her situation. After several minutes of detested mathematics, she had figured that Scootaloo had to have been conceived about two months after Dash had been given up for adoption. Her...their...parents were just not yet finished with bringing new foals into the world.

Dash hated the ponies who had nearly ruined her life for doing such a thing to Scootaloo. Yet at the same time she thanked them for creating a way for her to have family AND not ever see the parents she loathed so much ever again.

Dash felt a hoof on her back, and looked up to find the nurse trying to comfort the upset pegasus.

"Come on, Miss Dash, you're ruining the papers."

Dash nodded, and lifted her body off of the desk. The nurse then wrapped her magic around the documents and returned them to their homes. She then flicked the lamp switch again, and motioned for the door. Dash opened it and stepped out into the hallway.

Now out of the dark room, Dash stood staring out the window at the beautiful, sun-lit day. After standing for a while, she turned to the nurse, and embraced the unexpecting unicorn. The nurse stood with blue forelegs wrapped around her for a moment before returning the hug.

"Thank you," Dash whispered into the nurse's ear.

The cyan mare pulled away, and turned to the hallway they had entered from.

She had a sister to visit.

I think I got a little teary there too. Gawl this story has been going on with me for a while now. Time to finish. See ya next chapter!