//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: Opening old Wounds // Story: A New Life // by Trivium //------------------------------// Chapter 6: Opening old Wounds The first thing I felt when I woke up was Rainbow Dash's hoof running through my mane, slowly. I felt Rainbow Dash's warm chest against my face. "Mornin' Triv." She said, again somehow sensing my awakening. I opened my eyes slowly. "Morning," I said, rolling onto my back and stretching. "Got the time?" "6:45" Rainbow Dash said, still relaxed. "Sh-oooot." I said, jumping out of bed. "I've gotta be to work by 7:00!" I ran to the bathroom, and quickly straightened my mane out, and shot out the door. I flew fast, rushing for the store. There it was, just a little over a block away. I dove downwards, picking up speed as I neared the store. I quickly opened my wings to slow, landing roughly infront of the shop, and rushing through the door. "Just dying to get to work?" I heard a kind voice from behind the counter. "Am I late at all?" I asked, panting. "You're two minutes early." I sighed in relief. "Trivium, that's your name, right?" "Yeah," I said. "Reporting for duty." "Well, I'm Radeon, I'm the owner of this place." I looked from the floor towards the voice, there stood a brown-coated unicorn, doing something at the cash register. "Nice to meet you." I said, nodding. "Come 'ere, I'll show you what you'll be doing, and when you're working. We have four cashiers, you work every other week, every other day. Eight dollars an hour, from 7:30 AM to 6:30 PM. I want you to get here 30 minutes before we open, so you can make sure everything's in check." Radeon said, pushing some buttons on the register. "Yes, sir." I said, trying to process what he just said. "Now, how you work this thing, and really, everything, is pretty simple." the suited unicorn said, pressing another button, causing a tray to pop out, with organized piles of money. "You scan the bar code, with this." He said, showing my a small laser-scanner. "And you...." There were lots of things, buttons, devices, and everythings to learn... Things I don't want to sit here and describe, trust me, you'll be thanking me. "So you think you can handle it?" "Yes, sir." "We open in five minutes, get ready." Radeon said, before walking through a door, disappearing into the back-end of the building. Well, here it goes. Normal old life. *** 6:30. The last customer exited the store. A bell rang. "You'll get your paycheck at the end of the day at the end of each week you work." Radeon said, thanking me. He really did speak in long sentences. "Thank you, sir." I said as I walked out the door. Fresh air. I could go home, relax, and be with my girlfriend. Yeah, I could say that now, nothing quite like it, really. I really never was a fan of walking, so I flew home. Slowly, I opened the door, hearing no greeting as I did so. I shut the door, and sighed. I could sit down now, take a break. Work wasn't hard, but it WAS boring, standing there all day. I walked to the bedroom, and lazilly flopped onto it, saying on my side, ontop of the blankets and sheets, not bothering to grab a pillow. "Enjoying life?" I heard Rainbow Dash's voice, coming from nearby, but where? "Yeah..." I said, looking around. "Wondering where I am?" "Yeah..." I felt the bed lurch, and saw part of the blankets flip over, then I found myself in Rainbow Dash's arms. "Bet ya didn't see that one coming!" She said, laughing, her mane a mess. "Yeah, good one!" I said, feeling joy taking over me. "Welcome home, how was work?" Rainbow Dash asked, still hugging me for some reason. "It was... Work." I said. "Welcome to life." Rainbow Dash said, releasing me. "Yeah." I wasn't feeling very conservational at the moment. "You feeling alright?" Rainbow Dash asked. "You're not really being.... You..." "I think it's just that I'm not used to standing all day long working." I said. "You needa just, relax." She said, hugging me again. I loosened my shoulders and returned the hug. "You really know how to do that." I said. "So... Whats your work schedule? Got a day off?" "I work every other day of every other week." I said. "What a schedule, maybe tomorrow we could... Have a day to ourselves?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Sure, that sounds fun." I said. "About Dumb-bell...." Rainbow Dash started, rubbing the back of her neck. "Is he okay?" I asked. "Well, he's getting out of the hospital in a few days," She started. "He said he was sorry, probably out of fear, but still." "I still wish I could have held myself back." "He deserves it, honestly, he just sits and picks on everyone with his friend, and he's been at that game for a long time." "So... Did I do a good thing or a bad thing?" I asked, not really sure what she was trying to say. "Well," Rainbow Dash started. "It's good that you taught him a lesson, bad that he will probably target you with his friend at any time he can." "I'll probably be able to control myself better next time." I said, hoping there never was a next time. *** After a few hours of chatting, games, and some dinner, Rainbow Dash said she was gonna get some sleep. "I'm with ya on that one." I said, following her to bed. Soon, I was waiting for a sleep ambush, resting my head on Rainbow Dash. And, as expected, I was soon asleep. *** I woke slowly, to find Rainbow Dash laying awake in bed, probably waiting for me to wake up. "G'mornin'" Rainbow Dash said, yawning afterwards. "Mornin'" I said, rolling onto my back next to her. Rainbow Dash rolled onto her side, staring at me, smiling warmly. "We have all today, just to ourselves." She said. "All day." I promised, returning the smile. Rainbow Dash wrapped her arms around me and kissed me. I sure loved when she did that. I hugged her myself, my heart feeling as if it was about to explode. I opened my eyes slightly, seeing Rainbow Dash had done the same. I ran one of my hooves along Rainbow Dash's side, the other laying on the bed, not doing anything in particular. Rainbow Dash ran her hoof through my mane slowly, I could feel how relaxed she was. After around 45 seconds, Rainbow Dash leaned back, her eyes flashing with happiness. "Come on, get up, I wanna spend as long as possible with you." She said, standing up herself. I slid out of bed, and stretched. I felt a sudden wave of pain from my neck, and my vision blurred. I let out an unvolentary cry and collapsed. "Trivium!" I heard Rainbow Dash yell. Everything sounded distant. I heard hoofsteps, and felt myself being shook slightly. "Triv!" "I'm... Fine..... I'm just.... I needa.... Drink.... My neck.... Auuuughhhhhh....." My voice sounded rough, as far as I could hear. I didn't know what was happening. My vision blurred and span, my hearing getting softer and softer. *** "Help! We need a doctor! Please!" I felt breathing. I heard voices. I saw a very bright light. I squinted my eyes, and saw myself staring at the street. "Please! He needs help!" "W..... Wha......." I stammered out, my voice barely making any sound. I lifted my head slightly, and found myself slumped over Rainbow Dash's back. We were outside somewhere, many were staring, some calling for help. "Rain........" "Trivium!" I heard a distant voice. The ground began to grow distant. I felt myself being lifted by a stranger's hooves from Rainbow Dash. I let my eyes drift close. I felt the cold ground, and opened my eyes. Rainbow Dash stood over me, staring down, saying something. Her eyes had tears in them. She was crying. "Rainbow.... Don't... Cry...." I said, weakly lifting a hoof to touch her shoulder. I saw Rainbow Dash look around, then take a step back. I heard another voice, this one sounding stern and nearby. "He's going to be alright, please, give him some space." The center of my vision grew huge, the sides getting smaller. It seemed like my eyesight was being stretched outwards, towards the sky. "Rain..... Dash...." I saw a large flash of light. I heard a wooshing sound. Then my vision darkened. I felt extremely hot. My vision returned, but everything was mis-colored. The sky was red, the sun was purple. I lifted my head, and saw grey houses, yellow streets. I felt my head gently get pushed back to the floor. "He's... OverHeATiNG." My hearing was fading in and out. "WE NeED some shADe!" I felt my hooves get lifted from the ground. I felt dizziness. The ground was moving sideways. I suddenly felt coolness. My vision cleared up, my hearing getting better aswell. "Get something to carry him on!" I heard Rainbow Dash's voice, echoing, but sounding closer nearby. "His neck, something's wrong with it!" *** Slowly, my vision returned. No blurs. No pain. No hearing problems. Just the steady beeping of a heart monitor. I took in a deep breath. I wasn't sure what'd happened, but it was damn confusing, that's for sure. I looked out the window that was close to me. It was dark outside. I sighed, not really wanting to just sit here with no idea what happened. I looked out the window longingly. I wanted to be out there, at home, cuddled up with Rainbow Dash after our day we'd reserved for ourselves. I was worried about work, would I get excused absences? Was I going to get fired for missing days? I was stressed about work, far too much. Welcome to reality, I thought to myself. I hated this place. The last time I was here, I had just jumped to end my life, now I'm here again less then a month later! I decided it was the best I could do to try to get some sleep, surely Rainbow Dash would be here first thing in the morning to visit me. *** Even when the sun is so far away, it still has perfect aim. I squinted my eyes, the sun rays leaking into the room, right onto my eyes. I lifted a hoof to block the sun. It was early in the morning, probably 6:30 AM judging by the sun. I sighed, flicking my head so my mane covered my right eye, the one closest to the window. That helped alot, actually. I could see well now. Not like there was anything to see, though. The high-pitched constantly repeating beeping of the heart monitor was entrancing. I was staring blankly at a wall, listening to my electric heart beat, for a long time. Soon, I heard hoofsteps walking down the hall. I saw Rainbow Dash's cyan head and rainbow mane poke around the corner and peer into the room. I raised my hoof and waved weakly. She sighed and walked in, sitting down next to the bed, eye-to-eye with me. "I'm sorry about missing our "us" day, yesterday." I said, my voice slightly drunkened by painkillers. "Don't be, it was my fault for not getting your neck checked out first thing." She said, tilting her head slightly. "I was the one that said I would be fine." "Don't sit here and blame yourself, you're already in bad enough of a condition, and you'd best not hate yourself." I sighed, not wanting Rainbow Dash to feel at fault. "So what exactly happened yesterday?" I asked suddenly. "Well, when you first got up from bed and stretched, you yelled and collapsed. You fainted after 30 seconds of falling. I grabbed you and got us outside, and started calling for help. There was not a single medical expert around for a long time. You were slipping in and out of consciousness the entire time. I realized that it would be best for you to lie on the ground, because it would be much more stable on your neck. I had somepony lift you to the ground off my back, and put you on the ground. Long story, I know, but it's important. We managed to get a doctor to you, and then you started having a heat-stroke, and we had to get you into shade. Eventually, we got a large board of wood, and got you flown here." Rainbow Dash took a deep sigh. "Lots of story." She added. "Any idea what the injury was?" I asked, getting ready for the worst. "Light fracture on the C5 bone in your neck." Rainbow Dash quickly said. "Any idea how long I'll be in here?" My words slurred slightly. "Sorry, Triv, no clue." She sighed. "I told your boss what happened, he said you're going to be fine, you're just out of work until you can work again, no penalty." "I really am sorry about not being able to spend yesterday much with you...." I said, still feeling as if it was my fault. "You did get to spend the day with me, just, you weren't conscious!" Rainbow Dash said jokingly. I smiled half-heartedly. "Well, I'm sorry for not having much time, but I've gotta get to work." She said. She stood and kissed me, before leaving. "Have a nice day!" I said as she left.