Caring For A Certain Stallion

by runeplay2

*Beep* *Beep*

The cold, methodic beep was both a blessing and a curse to her. It seemed to attempt to abate her fears, and exasperate them at the same time. Each beep saying he was alive, resting. Each beep reminding her that he was in there.
Big Macintosh’s heart monitor.
Fluttershy’s tears seemed to be almost run dry, but with every pony who had gone in and out, without saying a word to her, they always managed to replenish her tears. The ones who gave her the occasional glance made her weep even more. They all looked at her with pity; they looked at her as they would a wife whose husband had gotten in a horrible accident on the way home from work. But this wasn’t her husband, it was a stallion she had barely shared a couple dozen sentences between them. And he hadn’t gotten caught in some horrible accident on the way home from work.
It was all her fault.
She had been the one who was trying to pull that cart down that detestable ramp. She was the one who had done it without any regard to her safety, or his. She had escaped with only a few stitches on her flank, and a fractured metatarsal, a few scratches elsewhere.
Him, however…
She didn’t know. They hadn’t told him. When the Apple family got here—Oh dear sweet Celestia, she hadn’t thought of this!—she didn’t know what to tell them!
The hospital actually had a message pony for this sort of situation, to go and tell the family involved in case they didn’t already know. How he was going to deliver this message, Fluttershy sure hoped that he made sure to tell them it was her fault. All of this was her fault. She knew it. She just wasn’t sure she could tell one of her best friends that it was. That it was her fault that Big Macintosh lay in the operating room, having what Celestia only knew being done to him that was taking so long.
Eventually, some surgeon—Oakheart, she thought his name was—came out of the operating room, his mask removed. He started looking about, and brought his gaze upon Fluttershy after hearing her sniffle back another wave of tears.
“I take it you’re his wife?” He asked as he sat down in the chair beside her.
Fluttershy attempted to form the words, but the lump in her throat kept them down. She shook her head, which almost threw her off balance.
“All right. Are you his sister, then? Or relative of some kind?”
Silence. Why couldn’t he just leave her alone? Couldn’t he see that she already was having enough trouble dealing with this?
“Well, I’m not really supposed to be telling you before his first-of-kin, but I think it may just be as much for your health as his, seeing how much you’ve been beating yourself up.” Oakheart sat down on the bench next to her, and patted her on the back, which only made her try to hide her face even more. “He actually got out of the entire situation much better than we had originally feared; He sustained a broken radius, his metacarpal on the same leg was cracked, so we’ve put a plate in to help hold together.”
Was this doctor just trying to make her feel worse?
“Our original fear was that he had major blood loss, but most of it, we found out,” the doctor slowed down, noticing the several bandages on Fluttershy, along with her shaking, “that most of the blood on him wasn’t his.”
Oakheart lowered his face to meet hers as he asked “Are you feeling well?”
“Am I feeling well?” She couldn’t take it anymore.
“Am I feeling well?! How do you think I feel?” She stumbled off the bench, wanting to distance herself from the doctor.
“I nearly got him killed, and you’re worried how I feel? I feel terrible! That’s how I feel! I might as well give up my friendship with Applejack now!” Fluttershy could feel her head become light, and a new wave of tears began streaming from her eyes.
“He’s in there, because of me, and I have you worrying over me!”
She turned, and began to trot towards the door.
“Ma’am, we haven’t released you yet!”
“Just tell Applejack I’m—“
She slammed into something, or something slammed into her. She couldn’t tell. The drowsiness in her head beckoned her to sleep. As she fought against her sudden fatigue, a hazy shadow shimmered past her vision. Darkness settling into her sight.
The next thing she saw was a light. Or, she saw the light through her eyelids. They were unbearably heavy. Then she heard something, something far away. A sigh, maybe…? There was also something very close. Something very, very close.
That infernal beeping. She let out a small growl, and reached towards the source. It was so much closer. She began to reach her hoof towards the noise, and felt a gentle but firm hoof hold hers down.
“Sugarcube,” The voice chuckled, “Ah don’ know what yer doin’, but that’s not any alarm clock.”
Now she was afraid to open her eyes. She whimpered, and pulled her hoof away from the mystery hoof.
“Ya okay? Want somethin’?”
It was definitely Applejack. All she could think of was to close her eyes tighter, and pull the covers up more.
“Fluttershy, ya okay?”
Fluttershy tried to hold them back, but her tears began to form anyway.
“What’re ya scared of? Is it the beepin’?”
“No,” Fluttershy answered in her head, “I’m scared of you being mad.”
Applejack reached forward in her chair to try patting Fluttershy’s shoulder, but the mare flinched away.
“Fluttershy, Ah promise, whatever it is, you can tell me. Ah won’ be mad.”
“Yes you will…” Fluttershy mumbled, almost hoping that Applejack wouldn’t catch it.
“Just tell me, Ah could never be mad at ya, Ah promise.”
“No, you will get mad at me!” She burst out, unable to hold her guilt back. “You should get mad at me! I’m a horrible, terrible, stupid pony, and I don’t deserve to have friends like you!”
She broke into a bawling mess, burying her face in her hooves. She couldn’t look at her friend—no, that wasn’t it, she didn’t have the right to—she couldn’t face Applejack.
“Fluttershy! What in the hay are ya talkin’ ‘bout? Yer one of the nicest, gentlest ponies Ah know! So what in all of Equestria makes ya say somethin’ like that?”
Fluttershy didn’t respond, she simply continued to weep-- louder, if at all possible, but weep all the same.
Applejack paused, finally realizing what could possibly have the upset the mare so much.
“Yer upset ‘bout the accident, aren’t ya?”
Fluttershy’s weeping degraded down to whimpering, but she still didn’t answer.
“Listen, Sugarcube, Ah’m not mad at ya!”
Fluttershy mumbled “Yes you are!” through her sheets.
“All right,” Applejack sighed, “Ah’ll admit, Ah was a bit mad. But Ah know ya didn’t mean ta hurt ‘im, an’ he ain’t hurt too bad. Yer heart was in the right place, an’ Ah don’ think yer a bad pony, ya just made a bad decision, that’s all!”
Applejack scooted closer to Fluttershy wrapping her legs around the other mare, trying to comfort her grief-stricken friend, and she floundered in her mind to find the right words. Fluttershy began her cries anew, feeling a new wave of tears overtaking her.
Applejack couldn’t think of any words to comfort her friend, and settled to just stroke her mane, whispering that it would be all right, as Fluttershy cried herself to sleep.
Applejack was hoping to Celestia it would.

Comments

[Aluminaughty]

awesome nuff said

[runeplay2]

620468
Right, sorry about that... I'll fix it as soon as I figure out how to.

[Gear-box]

I like but one thing with southern accents

1 person = you
2-6 = y'all
7+ = all y'all

[BobtheLurker]

I read the whole thing somewhere before and it was so awesome, it's still in my bookmarks.

I may just have to read it again.