Over the Edge and Over Again: Chapter 7
One Day
Rainbow Dash hated being in hospital. Her personality didn’t allow it. She enjoyed the freedom of flying, the thrill of speeding through the clouds, and the feel of the wind billowing against her coat and in between her feathers. Not being laid up in an uneven, uncomfortable bed where she couldn’t do anything.
Her previous stays had been less than enjoyable, but at least this time the problem wasn't her wings. That also meant here stay wouldn't be that long either.
“A whole day’s still a long time…”
Only her leg and nose were broken, and they were apparently pretty clean breaks too. She’d still be in a wheelchair for a few days, but at least she could go home this time. Her wings were fine, and the wheelchair was only recommended to help the fracture heal quicker. As much as it would have been preferred, even she couldn’t fly everywhere without using her legs to land every now and then. Her nose was as good as healed already though; a unicorn doctor could easily heal small breaks, but things like legs, wings and skulls needed more time.
But her injuries weren't what was bothering her, it was the reason she got them.
“Stupid giant. Thinking he’s all that. With his long legs and fancy sword…”
She’d kept her promise, and after the big guy was contained, she went straight to the hospital. But the thing was still there in Twilight’s house. Doing Luna knows what. At the very least, she got to see them carry him away in that big box. Twilight didn’t want to teleport something she didn’t know anything about, so they packed the monster into a large wooden crate and pulled it through town in a cart. Well, Pinkie Pie did anyway. They thought if she did it, ponies wouldn't pay her much notice.
And they had promised to visit her once they were sure the creature was secure. That helped ease her thoughts. But even if this thing did cause any more problems, the plan was to call the royal guard to deal with him instead. It’s the least he deserved after putting her in hospital.
And while she would have liked to see all of them, she knew they had to deal with Barbossa, so only a few would actually visit her. It didn’t matter though; as long as they were okay in the end, that was all that mattered. Getting less injured in the process would have been preferable, but it could have turned out worse.
Sitting back in her bed, she gazed at the room around her. Everything was made from wood, and the room was painted dark, earthly green. The floors were a dark blue, but she knew that anyway; the floors were the same throughout the whole building. She never quite knew why every room was painted a different colour, but guessed it was simply to add variety.
There were also a few woven chairs sat in the corner of the room, each having a small white cushion on top to add some comfort. They weren't really that comfy, but if you were visiting someone for a short while, they were better than nothing. There was also a small bedside cabinet to her left, as well as a glass and bottle of water on top. She wouldn't need to use the cabinet this time though, seeing as she was only there for the night.
Slowly becoming bored with her stay, she perked up at the sudden knocking at the door.
“Rainbow, y’all in there?”
Realising her friends had finally come to see her, she let a smile giggle escape her lips as she hurriedly combed her mane over. She knew they wouldn't mind her having a messy mane, but she still thought it was nice to look cool for her friends.
“Yeah, it’s open.”
Watching the door open, Rainbow smiled as Applejack cantered through the large doorway, followed closely by Rarity and Pinkie Pie, the latter of which waved and beamed at the cyan mare the moment she came into view.
“Hiya Dashie!” she said, pulling her injured friend into a hug.
It wasn't surprising, given that it was Pinkie, but it was a nice gesture all the same. It was good to see her friends were okay too; Applejack and Pinkie were jut smiling.
“Rainbow dear! How’s your leg doing?”
Rarity, on the other hand, seemed more distressed than happy. Her brow was furrowed, and she didn't hold a smile like the other two. She almost looked scared.
“Nah, it’s fine. I’m only here for the night anyway.”
Rainbow didn't consider herself the smartest pony, but she knew what was worrying her friend. It would be hard not to know, but she still wanted to enjoy her friends company for a little while longer.
“We brought some grapes. And they're seedless too.” Pinkie said jovially, holding out a small paper bag.
“I’m only here for one night, Pinkie.”
“But you always bring grapes when someone goes to hospital, silly.”
Not willing to dispute her friend's logic, Rainbow simply accepted it as a Pinkie Pie fact and tossed a few of the small, green pieces of fruit into her mouth. Grapes weren't her favourite food, but she wasn't one to turn down free food. But as much as she wanted to continue enjoying the company of her friends, the few of them that weren't actually there eventually wandered into her mind.
“So…” she said, tapping her good hoof on the bedsheets, “how are the others?”
“Everypony’s fine. Twilight an’ Fluttershy are stayin’ with Hector. We got him all tied up in a magic chair, so he ain’t goin’ nowhere.”
“Is that even safe? I mean, doesn’t he eat ponies and stuff?”
Rarity huffed in response, clicking her teeth and rolling her eyes. Applejack did the same, responding to Rarity rather than the comment.
“That’s what I said, but Twilight insisted she had the situation covered. I mean, sure, we have him tied up now, but what do we do once he gets out? He didn't seem too happy to see us, and we can't keep him in the library forever.”
“Rarity, Twilight's the smart one. I doubt she'd go releasin' him while we weren't there. Besides, he needs our help to get back home.”
The farmer shuffled on her hooves, looking back towards Rainbow.
“And I don't like 'im or nothin' but he didn't seem all that bad. He said he were sorry for makin' fun o' Fluttershy, and he gave me the money for the apples he took.”
Pinkie was quick to agree, nodding her head at her orange friend.
“Yeah, he doesn’t seem like a total meanie pants. I mean, he is definitely a meanie pants, but not a total one.”
“Why does he need our help to get home? Surely if he can get here, he can get back just fine,” Rainbow added, not quite following their line of conversation.
The three visitors stared at Rainbow, suddenly remembering that she wasn't there when they had questioned the pirate. Ceasing the opportunity, Pinkie jumped up onto the bed, standing over Rainbow with a beaming smile on her face.
“He’s from a totally different world, with pirates and epic adventures on the high seas and swords and swashbuckling and stuff! Isn’t that cool?!”
Watching as Rainbow's face contorted and her eyebrows rose, Pinkie ignored it and continued to talk.
“And he was on his way to the land of the dead with his cool pirate crew when he fell into Everfree and now he's lost and can't get home.”
Vacantly staring at her pink friend, Rainbow then chose to look at the ponies behind her. Watching as the two nodded with differing degrees of enthusiasm, Rainbow let the information she'd just heard sink into her mind, seeing as it was apparently true.
“That does sound…kinda cool, I guess.”
Pirates are pretty awesome, after all. Well, real pirates were, anyway.
“But that doesn’t change what he did, Rainbow Dash. It put you in hospital. And we’re lucky Twilight isn’t sat in the bed next to you,” argued Rarity.
Applejack begged to differ, rolling her head to one side and once again clicking her teeth with her tongue.
“But he said he were sorry. I don’t like him any more than you do, but every...thing deserves a second chance.”
Rainbow and Pinkie inwardly giggled at the argument going on around them. The topic at hand was hardly something to be laughed at, but given how often the two in question argued, it still proved to be somewhat funny. Wanting to stay out of the way, Pinkie and Rainbow sat back, waiting for the feud to eventually subside.
“Well, if you want to give a monster that goes around beating up ponies another chance, then be my guest.”
“But it isn’t like he didn’t have a reason. Dash started it.”
“But how were we meant to know it wasn’t about to eat you? He had his front legs in the air, and the two of you looked scared half to death!”
“And how was Hector meant to know that you and Rainbow thought that? And we weren't scared or nothin'. We was just nervous with the big creature talkin' to us and stuff.”
The two equines were face to face now, practically pushing their muzzles towards each other, ears flared and eyes wider than they needed to be.
“But he attacked Sweetie Belle and the others. How can you be so…so courteous to something that attacked your sister?
“If he did go an' hurt Applebloom, I'll knock him ten ways ta next Sunday. But Applebloom never said she were attacked, and she weren’t hurt nothin’ neither. I were gonna ask him…but then that boomy stick went of an’ he got all mad at Twilight…”
“And even if he didn’t attack the girls, he was going to blow Dash’s wings off with that thing.”
Rainbow’s eyes widened.
“Excuse me?! He was going to do what with my wings?!”
“Oh, darling, it was terrible. He has this thing called a pistol, and it shoots these fiery steel balls, and he was going to blow your wings to pieces. It shot a smoking hole clean through one of Twilights books too.”
Applejack frowned. She knew Rarity had a point, a few of them actually. But if he was really bad, he wouldn’t have given her the money for the apples, and he wouldn’t have said sorry to Fluttershy. The last time she didn’t think over the situation, she ended up criticizing Zecora for it, and she turned out to be nice in the end. She couldn't say she felt the same way about Hector, but what if a similar situation happened again? What if they were wrong?
“The next time I see ‘im, I’ll be askin’ Hector about eatin’ ponies and all that other stuff. If you were right, and he is a monster, I’ll take back what ah said and treat him the way he deserves. I just don’t wanna do the same thing we did to Zecora. And I know it ain’t the same, but I’d rather be dislikin’ him for the right reasons than the wrong ones.”
Patiently sitting on one of the pillowed chairs, Rarity thought over what her friend had said, leaning her head into one of her fore hooves. Despite what had happened, and how it had hurt some of her friends, she knew there was some truth in what Applejack said. She didn’t like Hector, and she was sure he didn’t like them, but when she thought about it, she didn’t know the whole truth. She didn’t want to admit it, but maybe the creature deserved to be heard out.
“Fine, but that is all that...Hector will get from me. One chance, nothing more. After that, I’m through with him,” she huffed, crossing her forelegs and turning her head to the side.
Sitting in silence for a few moments, Rainbow and Pinkie let out a sigh of relief as their two friends began speaking again, this time on friendly terms. Still hearing the two bicker, however, Pinkie and Rainbow decided to start their own conversion. Like the many other times they needed something to talk about, Pinkie started them off.
“I think we should help him. Then we can say we were friends with a real live pirate! Maybe he could teach us to talk piratey and swashbuckle. I've always wanted to swashbuckle.”
“Pinkie, he’s not a pony. We can't just go trusting him off the bat like that. Look what he did to me and Twilight.”
“Spike isn't a a pony, and he’s friendly. Hector isn’t nice, but maybe he just doesn’t know how to act like a pony.”
“What are you talking about? He isn't a pony, how is he meant to start acting like one?”
“Exactly! His world might be really, really, really different from ours. The ponies might not be very nice where he comes from.”
Cocking her head at her pink friend, Rainbow swirled what Pinkie had just said around in her mind. Maybe she did have some sort of point, in a Pinkie Pie kind of way.
“So...you think he’s mean to us because ponies in his world were mean to him? Or something like that?”
“Yeah. You know it makes perfect sense. I mean, why else would he try and hurt Twilight?”
“What about me? He hurt me too!” Rainbow said, motioning towards her broken leg for emphasis.
“Yes, but you started it Dashie. He shouldn’t have hit you back, but you shouldn’t have hit him in the first place.”
Poking her friend on the forehead with her hoof, Pinkie them smiled and pulled Rainbow into a tight hug.
“But I’m still glad you’re oki doki.”
“Thanks Pinkie.”
Dash returned the hug as best she could, shifting and moving around under her friends weight. Her leg was broken after all, so a full on hug was slightly awkward to do, but Pinkie didn't seem to mind.
“What else can this thing do then? Does he have his own pirate ship with cannons and stuff??”
Maybe the pirate wasn’t as bad as she thought he was. That didn't matter though; once she was out of hospital, she wouldn't let him out of her sight. Releasing Rainbow from the hug, Pinkie shrugged her shoulders.
“I don’t know. He said he was sailing with his crew to someone’s locker, so he must have had one, right?”
“So, is he like Rötenbeard? Or Captain Mortelmane and TrésorTail the Terrible?”
“He didn’t say much about himself, but there’s a really mean pirate called Blackbeard where he comes from, so I guess that kinda counts. But everyone else had weird names in his world. If you wanted a normal one, you had to make it up yourself.”
“Weird how? Like boring weird, or different weird?”
“Well, he said Blackbeard was really called Edward, and he’s only called Blackbeard to scare everyone. He talked about someone called Cutlass though, so maybe they haven’t all got boring names.”
“Well, I don’t care what he’s called or how boring his name is. He isn’t getting off the hook for busting my nose and leg.””
It wasn’t fair. She had been the one to help her friends, yet she was the one not learning anything about the monster. Not anything cool anyway.
“Maybe he’ll say he’s sorry once you get out.”
“Yeah, he’d better. Putting me in hospital and hurting Twilight. He’ll be lucky if I do anything for him.”
“Aww, don’t be like that Dashie. He’s a pirate. And he said the sooner we help him, the sooner he gets to go home.”
Rainbow gave her friend a sceptical glare, half closing her eyes.
“So he basically told you we should help him, or we’re stuck with him?” she said curiously, trying to add emphasis to the latter point
"Yup. And if he can’t get home, he can’t help Jack.”
So he was blackmailing them into helping him? That's what it sounded like. Help me, or I'll stay here and annoy you until you do, or that's how Rainbow imagined it anyway. But seeing as Pinkie had completely missed the point she was trying to make, Rainbow decided to move the conversation along.
“Who’s Jack?”
“The pirate he was trying to save from the land of the dead. They must be great friends if Hector went all the way there to see him again. That proves he’s a nice human.”
Readying to open her mouth and ask what she meant, Pinkie somehow knew what the question would and answered anyway.
“Oh yeah, his things are called humans. Or humanies. Or humani. I don’t know what the plural is. It rolls of the your tongue though, don't you think?”
“It doesn’t matter. I still don’t like him.”
Scrunching up her nose, and attempting to cross her forelegs, she looked at Rarity. The white unicorn and the orange earth pony were just listening to Pinkie talk anyway.
“I’m surprised Fluttershy didn’t want to come with you. You know, seeing as there’s a monster in Twilight’s house.”
“She volunteered to stay. Apparently she wanted to know more about him,” she said, before suddenly blinking, “Oh, and she says hi. So does Twilight.”
“Y’all need to give her more credit where it’s due, Rainbow. I thought she’d be scared of Hector too, especially after he ransacked her house. Maybe she's just curious about 'im?”
“Yeah. I mean, he technically is an animal.”
Fluttershy was a lot smarter than she let on, so maybe she just wanted to learn more about the new animal they'd discovered. Rainbow wouldn't put it past her. Or maybe she wanted to know about other stuff; she could be as curious as Twilight when she found something she liked.
“As nice as it is that Fluttershy isn’t scared of Hector, we need to get going. We only came to make sure you were okay. We love you dear, but it’s just Twilight, Spike and Fluttershy in the library with Hector, and we’d rather not take any chances.”
Rainbow sighed, frowning as the words left Rarity's lips. She would have preferred them to stay, but knew that if the situation was reversed, she would want to check on the others too. She was fine in the hospital, but they didn’t know how they were back at the library. Keeping her friends safe was more important.
“That’s fine guys, really. I’ll be out tomorrow anyway.”
Applejack nodded.
“And Fluttershy said she and Twilight would see ya tomorrow too. It’s getting late, and they’re probably talkin’ with Hector anyways.”
Giving Rainbow a hug, she moved towards the door, followed closely by Rarity.
“Goodnight sugercube.”
“Yes, goodnight Rainbow.”
“See ya tomorrow. Enjoy the grapes Dashie!”
Watching Pinkie bounce through the door behind the others, Rainbow sat back against her soft, feathery pillow. It was getting late, and the issue with Hector had cost her many a nap she’d had planned for the day. He’d cost her a lot of things she’d had planned for the day, like not being in hospital. But being there meant she had free time, and that meant she could sleep all she wanted.
Reaching over to her bedside table, she rummaged through the bag of grapes, only to find a dingy stalk with two pieces of fruit left. Looking over at the bag, there was a small note placed to the side. The paper was hot pink, and a small smiley face in a love heart sat below the text.
'It’s customary to eat most of the grapes before you leave too.'
- Pinkie Pie
Rolling her eyes, she shoved the last two grapes in her mouth and let her head fall onto her soft pillow. The sooner she went to sleep, the sooner it would be tomorrow, and the sooner it was tomorrow, the sooner she could leave. Lying down face first, she closed her eyes and felt the comfort of finally being able to get some rest. Her leg hurt, and getting comfortable was a little difficult, but she'd had worse nights sleep. Shuffling around under the covers, and shifting over and under the sheets multiple times, she finally found a position comfortable enough.
With nothing but the sounds of crickets outside and staff working their shifts down the hall, she closed her eyes to block out the remaining light of the day. The sun was setting, and the reds and yellows flooding in through the window were all that were keeping her from sleep, but being too lazy to close the curtains, she made do with what she had. Releasing a final yawn, she buried her head deep within the pillow below her, and soon after found herself dreaming of swashbuckling adventures on the high seas.