//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 
// Story: Handle with Care 
// by gcsmith 
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You reach corner of 'the street', as you've been thinking of it for the last ten minutes, it would of been five minutes as the pegasus flies but as an earth pony you've got to walk around everything. Still there was the benefit that the time might prepare you for what you're about to see. 

Standing at the corner, you resist the temptation to peek around it, the street your house was located was shaped a bit like a ponies back leg, the building hidden from view of the corner by the crooked section. You could however see the telltale signs of what the doctor had told you, wooden barriers painted yellow and black poking out from where houses blocked your line of sight, a stark warning to ponies that what lay beyond was dangerous.

A thought struck you, 'If they still haven't cleared the rubble after three days, it must be bad.' You realised as soon as thought about it, you probably shouldn't of. Everything you owned, apart from the case of clothes you had beside you, was inside the building. It would probably all be gone. Fresh tears begin to flood your eyes and you begin to hyperventilate, the sudden rush of oxygen making you dizzy and causing you to dry heave.

Bile slowly receding from your throat, you notice that you have fallen over, your legs weren't yet ready to deal with such an assault on your senses. Slowly and carefully rising from the ground, you make your way over to the barriers, preparing yourself to face the worst even though you know you are defiantly not ready for it.

As you round the corner, a terrible sight comes into view that causes the tears you had held back to flow freely. your house is nothing more than a pile of rocks with the remains of the room sticking out. Another thought crosses your mind, with your house being literally nothing more than wreckage, it makes it impossible for you to search for any possessions, and that's only if any actually survived. Overall, your situation seemed totally hopeless.

Standing there, your legs give way again, you had been through far to much and you finally break down. Crying openly, you moan loudly at life. You were bitless, homeless and all alone. So very alone.

For what seemed like an age you lay there, crying into the ground, the tears mixing with the dirt plastering your face with mud. Eventually you are brought out of your self pity by a thump of something landing next to you. For a moment it's silent, causing you to assume it's just something dropped by a clumsy pegasus, that is until you feel a hoof in your side.

"You alright?" it's the tomboyish tones of Rainbow Dash. You lift your face to look at her, "Ahh, ok, bad question," she says as she notices the mud around your eyes. Shifting nervously on her hooves, she opens her mouth several times to say something, but each time stops herself short. You're glad she does, somehow Rainbow was never the best words of wisdom, besides you barely knew each other.

She continues to stand there doing a rather good impression of a fish as you turn away, she hadn't done much to endear herself to you in the past and her standing their like that only served to annoy you. 'Why did she come all the way from her cloud just to act like that?' you thought to yourself, 'Not as if she has shown any concern about me before.'

That was true, in all of your trips to hospital before, even the times when she put you in, you never once received so much as a card from her. The only reason she could have to be hear was to tease you. 

As you're thinking the worst of the element of loyalty, you feel a pair of hooves grip you, it is a firm grip but gentle. Not too strong or too weak either. You're confused by the contact for a minute, before you feel your body begin to lift off the ground, she is flying you somewhere. You think about resisting but decide against it, you're already high off the ground, high enough to injure yourself again and besides, anywhere is better than where you were before. So, like a sheep being led to the water, you let Rainbow Dash carry you off into the early evening. Maybe you weren't as alone as you thought.

[Authors note: Sorry if this chapter is kind of short, I just wanted to end it with the image of Rainbow Dash carrying you off somewhere. It leaves a bit of mystery and a kind of awww moment.]