“Aw come on, not again. Tell me I’m dreaming. Just let it be a dream. A really really bad dream.” But it wasn’t. It wasn’t a dream, and it never had been. It just was a series of terrible events. One after another, over and over again. First the crash, then losing Tank, and now this. Why was she even here? What had happened that put her in the hospital again?
Come on, think Rainbow Dash, what happened? Okay, you were at a party. You were hungry. You went to the table with muffins, and then. Think Rainbow, think... but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t figure out what had happened. She knew something had happened, and she knew that she realized it was happening, but what was it...
Okay, one more time, a bit more detail this time, Rainbow. So you enter through the door, talk to Spike, get hungry, walk towards the table and get stopped multiple times on the way there. So you arrive at the table, and grab a cupcake. No, that didn’t happen, that was supposed to happen. But if that didn’t happen, then what did?
“Hello there miss Rainbow Dash, I see you’re awake again? You know, if you wanted to stay here for a bit longer you could have just asked.”
“Hello nurse Redheart. What happened?”
“Oh, you don’t remember? That is a bit concerning, let me check a couple things. Please close your eyes for me, I’ve just got to ask you a couple questions to see how bad it is. What is your name?”
“Rainbow Dash”
“What is the color of your skin?”
“The most awesome blue.”
“Could you describe your cutie mark for me?”
“A cloud with a lightning bolt in the colors of a rainbow.”
“Okay, it doesn’t seem to be too bad. I think I can tell you what happened. You were knocked out by a flying plate.”
Flying plate? Oh, of course, now I remember. Derpy tried to hand me a cupcake. “How long will I have to stay in here?”
“Well, the last time you were in here we released you a bit too early it seems. Usually a plate would just shatter, not cause a concussion again. That’s why we are going to keep you here for a bit longer. We want to monitor you for a total of two weeks.”
“Two weeks?! I have to stay here for another two weeks? Aw come on, I’m feeling fine!”
“No miss Rainbow, you don’t. And you won’t have to stay here for another two weeks, only 7 more days.”
“I’ve been knocked out for seven days?!” It couldn’t be. It just couldn’t. The nurse was lying. She was used to getting lied at, she knew when someone was lying. But still, Redheart didn’t seem to be lying. But she had to. Seven days? Knocked out for seven days? Do you have any idea how much epicness you can have in seven days? And she missed all of that. Why was this happening to her. Why... Was it just bad luck, or was it something more?
“Yes you have. Now I assume you’re pretty hungry. I have got to take care of somepony else now, but you should be able to eat on your own. Your food is on the table right next to you. Just take it easy, and don’t shake your head too much. I’ll leave the lights dimmed a bit, so you can get used to it a bit more easily. We don’t want to give you a worse headache than you’ve already got.”
“Yeah yeah, fine. I’ll manage.”
Nurse Redheart left the room.
She was right, I am hungry. I should probably eat something. Okay, so the plate is on my right. Okay, easy now. Easy, almost there. Got it! Okay, now slowly pull it back without dropping it. Or dropping yourself out of your bed. Almost there, and there we go. Okay, now let’s get this stuff down my throat. Blegh, this stuff is horrible. Maybe if I mix it together. It couldn’t get any worse than it already is. Let’s see... Okay this stuff is pretty hard to mix, let’s just take a spoon of both at the same time. Okay, okay, you win. Together it’s even worse. What is even in this stuff? I’m not even hungry anymore. But I haven’t eaten in over nine days now, that can’t be good. I have got to keep my body fit. Okay, let’s try this again. Nope, not hungry.
I just hope it’ll be visiting hours soon. I’m really bored. Maybe I could ask AJ and Pinkie to smuggle in some food. That way at least I won’t starve. Hmmm, if I remember correctly visiting hours would be around three o'clock. Let’s see, where is that clock again... Not on that wall, nor that wall... Ah, over there. Hey, finally, a bit of luck! Only five more minutes to go. I hope my friends are even going to show up. I mean, I’ve been here for seven days, laying here knocked out. That can’t have been a lot of fun for them. Just watching me lay here, hoping I’d wake up. You know, being here makes me start to appreciate them a lot more.
“Okay, miss Rainbow Dash. Did you finish eating?”
Eating? You call that eating? That’s not eating. That’s stuffing food down your own throat. Well, I probably shouldn’t tell her I think of it like that. “Yeah I did. I’m pretty thirsty though.” Even though the food was terrible, the hospital had great drinks.
“I understand, let me get you a glass of juice.”
“Eeh, nurse Redheart, do you know if my friends will be visiting today?”
“They already did. They went away just before you woke up. We can’t leave ponies around here all day, of course. They’ve got to do their own things as well.”
“Wait, are you saying visiting hours are already over? But weren’t those at 3 o’clock?”
“Yes they are.”
“But it’s five to three?”
“Oh, right, we need to replace the batteries in that clock. I’ll get some right away.”
Aw come on! Why! Why does this happen to me!
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Okay Rainbow, you’re almost there. Just a couple more minutes till you can see your friends again. Just ten more minutes. Ten minutes... That usually doesn’t seem that long. You’ve pulled yourself through the past day and night. Even though she was getting more and more used to the beds, she still couldn’t sleep in them. She had asked nurse Redheart if they couldn’t get her a cloud or something, but that idea immediately got turned down. Apparently clouds weren’t good for your health or something.
I’ve got to kill this time. Either I kill this time, or this time kills me. Let’s see, what could I think of. Flying of course, but that doesn’t really help. I tried that already, didn’t work out great. I just want to get out of here more if I think of that. Okay, let’s see. Tank. How would he be doing? I’m sure he’s fine. He is probably having a lot more fun than I am at the moment. Playing around in the open air, together with Angel and the other pets around at Fluttershy’s. Hmmm, what else can we think of? Well, actually, that probably has killed quite some time already. Let’s take another look. Ten seconds? Only ten seconds? Aww, come on!
Only five more minutes. Let’s see. You know what, let’s just do a countdown. three hundred ninety nine, three hundred ninety eight, three hundred ninety seven, Nope, not helping, I’m bored. Wait, what’s that? Who’s walking there?
“Well then miss Rainbow Dash. It’s almost visiting time. Your friends are waiting already, we just need to change your bandage real quick.”
Bandage? I’ve got a bandage? Wow, how did I not notice that? Well, I probably should not tell her that. “Okay, sure, go ahead. Just make it as quick as possible, I’m bored. Do they know I’m awake already?”
“Yes, they do. I contacted miss Sparkle as soon as you woke up, she told me she would make sure everybody knew you were awake. Now please sit still for just a moment. Well, I’ve got some good news. It looks like the head wound has healed a bit quicker than we expected. We might be able to get you out of here two days earlier than we thought. Let me just put on some new bandage though, just to make sure the wound won’t burst open again. And there we go, all done. I’ll tell your friends they can come in.”
Finally, a bit of good news! And most important, my friends are here!
“Isn't this exciting? Are you excited, 'cause I'm excited, I've never been so excited-- well, except for the time that I saw you walking into town and I went ‘ooooohhh’ but I mean really, who can top that? Well actually I was also that excited when I got into this town. Oh, and when Rarity did! Oh, and of course when you and fluttershy moved in but”
“Pinkie! We get it. Y’all pumped up, but let’s keep it down a bit? Ah’d think ah’d have a terrible headache after passin’ out for seven days.”
“Thanks AJ. I guess my head is aching just a little tiny bit. And I’m really thankful that you all came to see me. You’ve got no idea what it’s like to be stuck in a hospital for this long without doing anything.”
“Ah’d guess, but ya slept through most of it. Ah didn’t know plates could knock somepony out for this long. Ah mean, it didn’t look good and all. That was a pretty big wound you had.”
“Hey, how’s Derpy doing? I don’t want her to feel guilty.”
“Derpy is doing fine, my dear. She just didn’t know what went wrong.”
“Yep, sounds like Derpy. Hey guys, I’ve got to ask you all a favor. Is there any way you could smuggle some reasonable food in here? The food in here is well, not the best food in the world.”
“Ooh, care package! We’re making you a care package!”
“Oh of course my dear. We wouldn’t want to see you starve? Now it does have to be a healthy care package though, nurse Redheart wouldn’t allow something like cupcakes.”
“Ah could get some apples. We’ve got enough of them around the farm.”
“Oh, and I think Angel would be happy to help me get some carrots for you. And I could send out some other animals to get some flowers for you.”
“That would be amazing guys. Hey, you know what? They’ve got my favorite board game here, but I had nopony to play agains. No use playing against yourself. Anypony feel like challenging The Rainbow Dash in a game of-”
“Oh me! Me! Pick me!”
“Eeh, let’s see... Pinkie, would you like to play a game against me?”
“Yay! She picked me! Eeh... what game?”
“It’s over there on the table.”
“This one?”
“Yup, that’s the one. Okay, let’s see... You go first.”
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“Okay, visiting hours are over! You’ll have to come back next time, miss Rainbow Dash needs her rest,” nurse Redheart said while walking by in the hallway.
As her friends said goodbye, they walked out into the hallway. All, but one. Twilight had been staring out of the window ever since she walked into the room.
“Eeh, Twilight? Are you alright?”
“I guess I am, I’m just worrying if you are. It’s not like you. First you crash, and end up in here. Then you fly into a door —”
Hmm, so Fluttershy told her?
“— and now you’ve gotten knocked out by a simple plate that you’d normally dodge? I’m just not sure, I’ve got the feeling something else is going on. I just can’t exactly put my hooves on it.”
“Okay miss Sparkle, time to leave.”
“Sigh, just... just hang in there Rainbow.” Twilight said as she walked out of the room.