The cool, soft, wet air of the clouds... The bright blue of the sunlit sky... The beautiful trees and groves of the land below... Rainbow Dash took it all in as she enjoyed her morning flight over the Everfree forest. Though Rainbow didn't often admit it, she had a heartfelt connection to Ponyville and not just because of her friends. This was her home... She hated showing any signs of weakness because that wasn't part of her or the "her" that everypony knew.
Just as Dash approached the heart of the forest, a blur of unfitting color flashed over her eyes, it was so much brighter contrasting the dull earthy tones of the forest. She stopped in her tracks and looked down to try and figure out what she had seen. It looked like some sort of animal or odd plant or... pony?
"What the hay?" Rainbow began as she realized she was right, it was a pony lying on the forest floor!
She plunged downward towards the unconscious pony, landing on the ground with a soft thud. Quickly dash examined the body of the mare she had found. she paced circles around the pony observing everything around her. The first thing she noticed is that it was a mare and the second thing was the mare was a pegasus. She had a pastel yellow coat a bit brighter than Fluttershy’s but the color was barely visible through the layers of dirt, blood and mud.
Wait.. blood?!! Rainbow thought.
She had a bright teal and lavender mane that was covered in brambles and leaves and dulled out by mud and dirt same as her coat. Her wings were unnaturally bent and folded, which made rainbow cringe, imagining the pain of her own wing injuries and then looking back to the mare's wings only to see that they were in a lot worse shape than Rainbow's had ever been. Her heart rate quickened and panic erupted through her body, every limb trembled with worry and her mind jumped from theory to theory in milliseconds, not retaining a single bit of her ideas, each of her thoughts were worse than the last. She had never seen any injuries this bad, not in all her years on the weather team or even in flight school, and if she were completely honest with herself... she was scared. Really scared.
Dash wasn't the pony to have anxiety about anything much less get into a panic about anything, but this particular situation... pulled out buried fears from deep in her mind. Memories from her childhood and images she had forced herself to scrape from every corner of her brain started to inch toward her conscious mind but she quickly shut them out like she had trained herself to do over the years.
Shaking herself from inside her head, she hesitantly remembered to check for a pulse. Hopeful, she placed a hoof on the mare's neck and waited for the steady beat to meet her hoof. She waited and waited until finally, she was relived with a gentle hallow thump against her fur. Still panicked she waited for another heartbeat scared that it wouldn't come to meet her hoof, but slowly, slightly lighter than the last it came. This mare was clinging to life with all that she had left in her.
Rainbow Dash looked to the sky when she heard the distant beat of wings. Two pegasi were flying right over where she and the mare were. Rainbow took to the sky as fast as she could. Spurred by a sinking feeling of fear, something she refused to let weigh her down though. The two colts in the sky noticed rainbow and stopped flying, her panic clearly visible, they exchanged worried glanced as flew towards her.
"There was a- I was flying and then- she was bleeding and- I-I.." Rainbow uncharacteristically chocked out between breaths laced with worry, her voice cracking and her mind fighting to decide what was the most important thing to relay to them first.
"Easy there Rainbow..." one of the stallions voiced with concern.
"Yeah, take a breath and show us what you're talkin' about." The other stallion said with a slight calming tint to his voice.
Rainbow Dash flew back to where she had previously been with the mare followed by the two colts she had just talked to. They all landed on the forest floor next to the mystery pegasus. The two ponies next to Dash froze as disbelief registered on their faces.
"Dear Celestia..."
***
"Uh, is there a-anypony we can get for you Ms. Dash?" The hospital receptionist asked Rainbow.
Instead of responding Rainbow continued to blankly stare at the wall, her eyes wide and brimming with tears threatening to spill, but she didn't notice or care. Her mind was streaming with thoughts going through her head faster than she could fly, all while the recent events replaying in her mind over and over, invading her brain. The receptionist took a step back from Dash and gave a nod to a stallion who was standing near the big glass doors of the hospital. He nodded back and trotted briskly out of the hospital before breaking into a gallop towards Princess Twilight Sparkle’s castle. The kind mare laid a hoof over Rainbow’s back and lead her to a chair in the hospital waiting room. Rainbow blindly swayed to where she was being directed, barley aware of her own movement.
"Just wait here ma'am, your friends will be here shortly. If there is any news on that mare you and those stallions brought in, I'll send someone to update you immediately." The receptionist gave Dash a sympathetic look before returning to her desk.
Not too much later Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity and Flutter shy came galloping through the doors of the hospital, scanning the room for Rainbow Dash.
"She's over there!" Pinkie announced to the others pointing to the chair occupied by Rainbow in the waiting area.
Applejack was the first to get to her, the first to witness her blank stare, the first to notice her tear stained cheeks, first to look into her magenta eyes and see the pain of memory. She just stood there locking gazes with Rainbow, wordless. The others immediately swarmed them and the question began.
"What hap-"
"Are you o-"
"What’s-"
"How di-"
"Who wa-"
All the ponies asked at once, questions lapping over each other.
"EVERYPONY BE QUIET" Applejack yelled and immediately after, there was silence.
Tears streaked down Dash's face as she looked into Applejack’s eyes. Her eyes watered as she put a hoof on Rainbows cheek and without a word hugged her as tight as she could without hurting her friend.
All of the ponies grew tears in their eyes from seeing they're arrogant, cocky, confident and normally happy friend in this state. They could only look to each other for support. Fluttershy turned to the pony next to her witch happened to be Twilight, and she buried her face into her mane gently sobbing and Rarity put an arm around Pinkie who was trembling slightly. They all knew that if Rainbow was this upset it was really bad...
Rainbow hugged Applejack back tightly, squeezing her eyes closed as tears fell harder one after another onto Applejack's fur.
"Sh-she... she... I-I thought she was dead" Rainbow cried out now sobbing. "I-I felt her l-life slip a-away. sh-sh-she was i-in so much pain. I-I tried s-so hard to to save her Applejack"
"Shhhh... we're here now sugar cube. You're alright. you did everythin' ya could Rainbow... now we just gotta wait an' see."
The rest of the mares hugged Rainbow as she cried. They all stood like that for a while, clinging to each other, supporting Rainbow Dash as best they could until a doctor came through the doors that led to the waiting area.
"Is there a Rainbow, Dash here? Rainbow, Dash?" he said Rainbow's name slowly, as it was unfamiliar to his mouth.
"over here!" Twilight directed to the stallion in the doorway. He walked over to the group of hugging mares, who began to disbanded revealing a Rainbow maned, cobalt colored pegasus.
"Ah, you must be Rainbow Dash, I'm doctor Don medic but you can call me Don" He stuck his hoof out to shake Dash's.
"Yes, that's me. N-nice to meet you." she stuck her hoof out to meet his, while desperately trying to hide the fact that seconds ago she was balling her eyes out. "These are my friends, whatever you say to me you can say to them too"
"OK, yes. so, my understanding is you brought in the battered mare in this morning?"
"Yes... that's right. Um... how is she?"
"She's still with us. You and your friends can come see her if you'd like too. I can update you on her condition while we walk"
"Thanks that'd be great" Rainbow said, as she began waking with Doctor Don, her friends followed suit exchanging glances.
"So, the mare you brought in is in bad shape she has multiple fractures, bruises, cuts but that's just the minor stuff. She is malnourished and very underweight, from what we can tell she has been unconscious for days now. meaning her wounds are infected and her body is giving up. we are giving her everything we can provide her. antibiotics are being pushed and we've casted her broken wings and her foreleg, we put dressing on her cuts and now it's just a waiting game."
Rarity walked slower with her eyes glued to the ground worry creasing her face. Fluttershy slowly shook her head keeping her pose. Pinkie was actually serious for once in her life and instead of bouncing as she normally did, she walked slowly. Applejack reached a hoof onto Rainbow's shoulder while her face was blank and unreadable. Twilight was the first to speak.
"Is there anything we can do?"
"Medically? no, unfortunately. Just being here when she wakes up is honestly all you can do. She's going to need somepony to lean on during her recovery."
"Then that's what we'll do." Fluttershy spoke with a timid determination.
"I'll bring her snacks and sweets when she wakes up!" Pinkie volunteered
"If she needs friends then that's what we"ll be" Applejack said looking from Rainbow to the doctor with empathy.
They walked on for a bit more in silence following the doctor through the twists and turns of the hospital.
Very suddenly a frazzled nurse with wide eyes, ran around the corner up too the doctor and group of ponies walking with him.
"Doctor! she's awake!"