Friendships Forgotten

by e4tmyl33t

Friendships Forgotten: Kindness Repaid

Fluttershy closed the supply cabinet after retrieving another roll of bandages. The hospital had just been restocked last week, but they were already running low again. Another order would have to be put in, and she wasn't sure if the hospital could afford to keep spending bits like it was. She sighed around the roll in her mouth as she walked down the corridor and pushed open the door to room 8.

Once inside the room, she dropped the bandages onto the small table near the doorway and turned to look at her patient. The electric blue pegasus in the bed had been here for over two months now, and was likely to be here for far longer than that. The explosion that had nearly blew off Rainbow Dash's wings had done quite a number on her, and in the whole time she had occupied that bed she hadn't woken up, just exhibiting the occasional reflex twitch or movement in response to treatments before lolling back off into unconsiousness.

A slight sniffle escaped Fluttershy's control, her eyes tearing up a bit at the sight of her friend hurt this badly, and having such a hard time recovering from it. She shook her head to get her mind back on track, and pulled off the sheet covering Rainbow's hind legs. Her throat caught again as she saw the bandages, just as it had that morning, and each time every day since she had put Rainbow in this bed herself. It hadn't gotten any easier to look at.

Both of Rainbow's hind legs were completely wrapped in bandages, and there were still large sections of the bandages that would be completely red with blood after just a few hours. In addition to the bandages, there were large wooden splints binding each leg to help the broken bones knit correctly. Rainbow's tail was almost completely gone, all but a few inches of that multi-hued hair having been seared off in the blast. Her flanks were still raw in places, though her coat had started to regrow in patches, mostly around Rainbow's cutie mark and spreading outward.

While her lower body had taken the brunt of the blast, though, her upper body wasn't that much better. Her wings were splayed out in splints similar to the ones on her hind legs, and at least half the feathers had been torn out of each one between the explosion itself and Rainbow's rough trip through the forest canopy immediately afterward. There were cuts and bruising all along her chest and forelegs, and most of her head was wrapped in bandages as well, with bits of her rainbow mane poking through where the bandages didn't overlap. The concussion she got from the impact with the ground was bad, and Fluttershy feared quite often that it might be permanently damaging for the brash young pegasus who was asleep in the bed.

Fluttershy blinked away the tears beginning to form as she leaned in to begin removing the latest set of bandages from Rainbow's legs. A few times she had to bite down on one of the very blood-soaked sections to continue with the unwrapping, and the metallic taste lingered in her mouth, just as it had done each time she had removed Rainbow's bandages previously. Once the bandages had been removed from Rainbow's left leg, she went back over to the table near the door and began pouring out some disinfecting cleaner onto a washcloth. The cleaner stung her nose, but she had gotten used to it over the last few months. Taking the soaked rag over to the bed, she began lightly scrubbing Rainbow's wounds to clean them of any residual blood or material.

A slight hiss escaped from between Rainbow's teeth as the cleaner stung her open wounds. Fluttershy looked up from her work briefly, making sure Rainbow didn't seem to be in too much pain from her ministrations. Rainbow's face was scrunched up a bit, but began to relax quickly. A small murmur of sound came out of Rainbow's mouth as she shifted her head, seemingly getting more comfortable in her sleep. Fluttershy turned back to her work, sighed, and continued her cleaning.

"mmr...zat....stings..."

Fluttershy's head shot up in an instant, eyes locked on Rainbow's face. The words had been faint, almost low enough to be inaudible. The scrunched up look of minor pain was back, and she was shifting her head around more. After a few fitful moments, she seemed to relax again and settled down. Fluttershy sighed softly, almost in defeat, but a small smile worked its way onto her lips. That was more activity than they'd seen in Rainbow since she was brought into the hospital. She picked up the cleaning cloth that had fallen to the bed and went back to her task.

"rrr...that...stings! Wha...?"

Fluttershy looked up again, and this time was greeted with a sight she hadn't seen for months. A pair of magenta eyes were blinking rapidly and squinting against the light in the room as they looked around. Rainbow was conscious! Fluttershy practically bounced into the air with happiness, her wings fluttering and keeping her aloft as the biggest smile she'd ever smiled broke out across her face.

"Ohmygoodness ohmygoodness ohmygoodness! Rainbow, you're awake!"

Rainbow's head swung around and she blinked a few times in Fluttershy's direction, seeming to have a hard time focusing. She brought up a foreleg to shield her eyes from the light and stared for a moment.

"Fluttershy? Wha...what happened? Where am I? Why do I feel all tied up?"

Fluttershy landed near the head of the bed, grinning at Rainbow for a few seconds longer, before throwing her forelegs around Rainbow's neck and giving her as big a hug as possible. Rainbow looked shocked for a second, before taking another look at her surroundings and noticing the terrible shape she was in.

"Uh...Fluttershy? Really, what happened? I take it I'm in a hospital, but how did I get here? How LONG have I been here? The last thing I remember is..." Her words trailed off as the memory of what happened during her last Rainboom attempt came back to her. The noise, the light, the sound of those crystals resonating before the inevitable explosion, the long fall through the trees...

Fluttershy let go of her friend, stepping back towards the end of the bed to pick up the neglected cleaning cloth. She stopped and thought for a moment before replying.

"I found you in the forest just over two months ago. I had heard a loud explosion and ran off to see if anypony had been hurt. I found you on the ground, like you had crashed through the trees. I..." Her voice cracked and a tear ran down her face as she recalled how she had found Rainbow. "I didn't know what had happened, but you were very hurt. I immediately picked you up and flew you back here as quickly as I could. You've been unconscious the whole time. This is the first time you've woken up since...since..." She choked on the final part of her sentence as she thought about how she had found her friend.

Rainbow took in the sight of her friend quietly crying next to her hospital bed, before shifting her attention to herself. She took a good look at the bandages on her legs, wincing as she remembered the intense burning of the Rainboom's light as it was released from the crystal contraptions those suicidal pegasi carried. She turned her head, surveying the damage to her wings. She flexed the muscles closest to her shoulders, trying to feel out how bad the internal injuries may be. Though extremely sore, her wings seemed to be unbroken, or at least any breaks had been mended expertly. She looked back over to Fluttershy.

"Hey Shy, could you do me a huge favor? Can you take these whatsits off my wings? I need to stretch and they're in the way."

Fluttershy sniffled as she raised her head to look up at Rainbow, who was staring at her expectantly. She wiped a foreleg across her face to clear off any lingering tears and moved towards the head of the bed. Leaning over, she undid the straps holding the splint on Rainbow's right wing and gingerly slid the device off the cyan pegasus before moving to the other side of the bed to do the same with the left wing's splint.

Once free of the splints, Rainbow groaned in a mixture of pleasure and pain as she stretched muscles that had been forced into stillness for months. After a few experimental flaps to make sure everything still moved as it should, she folded her wings back to her sides, noting that there were still some feathers missing that hadn't regrown yet. She smiled as she closed her eyes and leaned back on the bed, watching Fluttershy go back to working on her legs. She took note of the delicacy that the yellow pegasus took when working on her wounds, making sure that they were completely clean before replacing the bandages with fresh ones.

"Hey Shy..." Rainbow said quietly. Fluttershy looked up from cleaning up the last of the old bandages laying on the bed, seeing Rainbow looking down at her own torso. She deposited the bandages on the tray and walked back to the head of the bed. Rainbow sighed, then turned to look at her friend.

"Thanks, Shy. If it weren't for you, I'd probably be dead right now. I owe you." She reached over and drew Fluttershy into a tight hug. Fluttershy smiled as she wrapped her own forelegs around Rainbows neck, returning the embrace and feeling extremely relieved that her friend seemed like she was going to be okay.

Two more months passed for Rainbow at the hospital, during which her broken legs healed with no complications.Her wing feathers had completely regrown and her coat was almost completely back to its normal condition. Once she was able to walk again, she would regularly accompany Fluttershy on her rounds, talking about the various events that had come about during the war. Some of the stories would cause Fluttershy to just about break down in tears, and some, to Rainbow's surprise, would cause the yellow pegasus to show an almost extremely calm anger in how things had turned out.

A week before Rainbow was scheduled to be discharged, a scroll bearing Princess Celestia's royal seal on it arrived at the hospital addressed to her. Fluttershy tucked it under a wing before she went to Rainbow's room to gather her friend for their mid-morning walk along the hospital's grounds. After handing it over, she waited patiently while Rainbow read the contents of the missive, then nearly jumped out of her skin when Rainbow jumped up from the bed, the scroll falling to the floor as she began rummaging around the room to find any belongings she had with her.

"Was...was there good news in it?" she asked of the rainbow-maned pony. Rainbow stopped in her quest to gather her things and looked back at Fluttershy. The flame of determination burned in her magenta eyes, a sight that Fluttershy hadn't seen a lot of during Rainbow's stay at the hospital.

"It was a message from someone high up in the Solar military. They want me back in Canterlot as soon as possible. I can't keep patrolling the skies since the Lunars apparently know how to counter a Rainboom, and I'm not very good at much of the other military stuff. Someone seems to have a plan, though, and it looks like I'm going on one last mission." Fluttershy's eyes widened as she heard the news, before she cast her gaze down to the ground.

"Rainbow...be careful. I was so worried when I brought you in, I couldn't stand to hear you got yourself killed out there just after getting better." Rainbow walked over and gave her friend a friendly nuzzle behind the ear before stepping back, using a hoof to bring Fluttershy's eyes up to meet her own.

"Don't worry Shy. I won't be getting myself killed that easily. Besides, I owe you for getting me healthy again. Once I finish this mission, I'm done with the military, I'll get my bits, and I'll be back to pay off the debt I owe you. I'll give you enough bits to run this hospital for a year. Count on it." Fluttershy looked puzzled for a second, and cocked her head in confusion.

"What kind of mission would get you that much money, Rainbow?" Rainbow cracked a cocky grin and shook her head, her multihued mane falling forward in front of her eyes, once again hardened in determination.

"We're going to end this war."

Fluttershy watched her friend take off and fly towards Canterlot in the orange sky of sunset. They had exchanged their goodbyes outside the hospital, in the garden. Rainbow had double-checked that she had packed what little she had, which amounted to not much more than her pair of flight goggles and a small bag of food and supplies Fluttershy had made up for her. She then took off like a shot into the distance.

Fluttershy waited until she couldn't see Rainbow in the sky anymore, then sighed and began to slowly walk back into the hospital. She went straight to her room, climbing into bed and curling her legs up underneath her. She stared at the sheets, deep in thought, until she leaned over and opened a drawer, pulling out another scroll bearing the Solar Empire royal seal. She let her gaze fall upon the letter she had received many months ago, about a month after Rainbow had arrived.