Rainbow watched silently as Fluttershy went to and fro about the room, tending to the various monitoring devices currently attached to Rainbow.
"Fluttershy?" Rainbow timidly asked, "Are we still friends?"
Fluttershy shook her head. "We were friends a long time ago," she began, "but... after you fell, and I caught you... I began to try every way I could to bring back the mare that stood up for me."
Hearing Fluttershy mention the race caught Rainbow's full attention. "So you remember?" she asked, gleefully hoping for any sort of return.
"You're not the same little filly I struggled to fly back from the ground, Rainbow." She glanced back at the bedridden mare. "Those dreams of yours-- you're still the same, but you're almost unrecognizable now."
"What about my parents?" Rainbow asked yet again, "Do they know?"
Fluttershy nodded, sitting down beside Rainbow. "They know," she replied, "but they've moved on quite a while ago. When they were told that you may never wake up, they were crushed..."
"And?"
"They had another foal, to... replace you. Spectral Glider, if I remember correctly. I haven't seen the filly for a while now though."
Rainbow's eyes focused on the lone window in the room once more. After minutes of silence, she began to speak again. "Fluttershy?" She asked, "Will I ever fly again?"
Fluttershy cleared her throat. "Rainbow, have you looked at your wings yet?"
Rainbow quickly whirled around, her eyes setting in horror upon the stump that was once her right wing.
"With enough funding, I might be able to get you a prosthetic."
Rainbow nodded in disappointment. "Aww..." groaned, "That sucks..."
A quiet buzz surprised her.
"What was that?!" she suddenly yelled, wincing in pain immediately afterwards from the sudden movement.
Fluttershy paid no mind to rainbow as she calmly walked to a shelf beside the door, where she took hold of a flat, dark, boxy-looking device.
"It's a smartphone," Fluttershy replied, handing the device to her patient, "They were invented a couple years after you fell."
Rainbow's eyes widened as she watched Fluttershy press a button on the side. Immediately, the 'smartphone' blasted the mare with light. Once again, Fluttershy took almost no notice as she swiped her hoof multiple times.
Rainbow shifted in her bed, attempting to see the device up close. Fluttershy silently refused Rainbow, and nudged her back down.
"You've got an interviewer wanting to see you at four," Fluttershy said, never taking her eyes off the phone's screen, "would you like to meet with them?"
Rainbow nodded.
Swift Strokes adjusted his glasses as he set a notepad on the table beside Rainbow's bed. "Miss Dash, am I right?" He asked, glancing towards the bedridden mare.
Rainbow nodded, shifting under the covers.
Swift Strokes nodded. "Now then, is it alright if I ask you a couple questions?"
Once again, Rainbow simply nodded.
"What were your first thoughts when you woke up?"
"Um..." Rainbow began, "I remember that I was really confused, like, I was all 'How did I get here?' and stuff like that. It just felt kinda weird."
Swift nodded, jotting down the notes.
"I heard from Fluttershy that you've been living a so-called 'dream life' while you were in your coma. Could you explain it to us?"
Rainbow's ears perked. "I-I'll try," she replied, "it's just kinda hard for me to think about it right now." Her eyes fell upon her patient tag again, tracing the numbers on her admission date. "Well... in my old life, I never crashed. I just felt a bit of turbulence. During the race I had against Hoops and Dumbbell, I also pulled off a sonic rainboom."
Swift raised his brow, but didn't comment. Instead, he signalled her to continue as he finished writing.
"I remember that it was Fluttershy who fell, but... I kinda abandoned her, 'cause I wanted to finish the race. 'Yknow?" Rainbow paused, staring out the window at the rolling expanse of fluffy clouds. "She fell all the way to the ground, but she made it back because she was caught by some butterflies, according to her."
"And?" Swift pressed, flipping to a new page, "Go on."
"And so, when her parents flew down to bring her back up, she forgave me, since I was trying to prove her bullies wrong. She told me that she fell into a small town that Cloudsdale was floating over called 'Ponyville', and that there were a lot of nice animals. She then showed me her cutie mark, which she got after she found out that she could talk to animals." Rainbow abruptly stopped, sighing as she turned back to Swift Strokes. "But it's probably not like that in real life, is it?"
Swift Strokes shook his head. "No, Dash. Fluttershy got her mark in pony anatomy at school the year after you crashed. She's been in the top of her class, too. In fact, that mare's actually been interning here for the past three months!"
Rainbow sighed, rubbing her head with both hooves in attempt to sink into the reality that she now lived.
"Miss Dash?" Swift questioned, gazing up from the notes, "Would you like to continue?"
"I... I will," Rainbow replied. "Um, where was I again?"
"You were talking about Fluttershy, according to you."
Rainbow nodded. "And so after that, my parents and I decided to move to Ponyville out of fear that I would be next to fall." Her lip began to tremble ever so slightly as she pressed on. "I... met a lot of other foals down there, during school and stuff... We'd play tag a lot of times, but we'd usually play pranks on each other. We lived for a while near Sweet Apple Acres, where I met Applejack. She was pretty hardheaded at times, but--"
"Did you say Sweet Apple Acres?" Swift cut in, "I don't believe I've heard of them for years now."
"You mean it exists?!" Rainbow gasped, "Does Applejack still live there? Whaddabout Granny Smith? Big Mac? I mean, sure, AJ might've decided to stay in--"
"Rainbow." Swift deadpanned, "Sweet Apple Acres is a large-scale plantation company that now specializes in the manufacturing of farming machinery. They haven't done any farming for years now."
Rainbow sunk in defeat, allowing her blankets to consume her. "But what about Applejack?" she asked softly, "What about my friends?"
She bolted back upright, flinging a blanket corner aside. "WHAT ABOUT PINKIE PIE?!"
"Listen, Miss, but Fluttershy and I can do nothing but assure you that your friends do not exist, and they never have.
A glistening wetness began to make its way into Rainbow's eyes.