...Beep...
...Beep....
...Beep...
Huh?
...Beep...
Am I dead?
...Beep...
Rainbow Dash slowly cracked open one her eyes. She lifted a hoof to rub them and was immediately seized by a stabbing pain. She cried out.
Rainbow tried opening her other eye. It wouldn't open.
She tried to breathe in and was stopped by another blinding pain.
What happened to me? Last thing I remember I was reading to...
Scootaloo!
Rainbow Dash struggled up, ignoring the pain. The ECG she was apparently hooked up to start beeping in distress. For some reason, everything below her neck refused to move.
Oh no. I remember crashing to the ground. What if I...
Alerted by the ECG, several doctors rushed in, looks of panic on their faces.
"Scootaloo!" Rainbow Dash screamed. "Is she alright?!"
"Miss Dash, please settle down. Scootaloo is fine!"
Rainbow settled down and breathed a sigh of relief, which she immediately regretted as a sharp pain came from her chest. She vaguely felt something attached to her side, seemingly inflating her lungs with air without her even trying. She also couldn't move anything below her neck, and couldn't see anything out of her right eye.
"What's wrong with me, doc?" Rainbow Dash asked with trepidation.
The doctor picked up a clipboard from next to the bed. "You have a punctured lung, nine broken ribs, a broken wing, the other wing sprained, severe trauma to your right eye, a large abrasion on your left ear, and a concussion." The doctor rattled off calmly. "You're lucky Princess Twilight found you when she did, a couple more minutes and you would probably had bled out."
Rainbow Dash stared at the doctor in horror.
"B-but why can't I move?"
"Per Princess Twilight's order, you have been strapped to the bed. She said something about 'protecting not only Rainbow Dash, but the well-being of everybody else near her.'"
Rainbow let her head fall down on the pillow.
"How long am I going to have to stay here?" Rainbow asked, knowing she was going to hate the answer.
"Six to eight weeks." The doctor responded slowly.
"What?!" Rainbow Dash shot up again, wincing as a sharp pain overtook her. "Last time I was here for a broken wing I only needed to stay here for a week!"
The doctor just sighed. "And if you only had a broken wing we could have you out of here in a week. However you managed to break ten different bones, and if that's not bad enough, just healing the punctured lung will take six to eight weeks regardless."
Rainbow Dash let her head hit the pillow again, tears welling up in her eyes.
"There's one other thing Miss Dash." The doctor continued. "Princess Twilight and Scootaloo are both here to see you... but before I let them in there's something I must let you know. With our current medical science, I'm afraid there's nothing we can do to restore sight to your right eye. I'm truly sorry, Miss Dash. Would you like me to let the others in?"
Rainbow simply nodded as hot tears streamed down her face. She could only hope she gave as good as she got.
Moments later, she hear two screaming voices as Twilight and Scootaloo rushed into the room. Scootaloo instantly threw herself up on Rainbow's bed, and threw a hug around Dash's neck, ignoring the grunt of pain, and started sobbing. Twilight stopped next to Dash's bed, looking like she'd seen a ghost.
"Rainbow Dash I'm so sorry!" Twilight cried, tears starting to well up in her eyes. "I felt the tripwire spell around Thunder Chaser's home go off, but by the time I saw the Rainboom and found you... You were unconscious, lying in a pool of your own blood, and you had these bones sticking out of you, and a knife in your side and... I thought... I thought we were gonna lose you."
Breaking out into tears herself, Twilight went around to the other side of Rainbow's bed and hugged the other side of her neck, only pulling back she Rainbow cried out in pain after Twilight jostled the device pumping air into her lungs. Twilight quickly sat down and apologized.
Rainbow nuzzled the sobbing filly. "Hey, it's okay squirt." Rainbow spoke in her most soothing voice. "Are you okay?"
Scootaloo broke the hug and nodded. "I just got a small bruise from where my d-... Thunder Chaser smacked me." Scootaloo immediately returned to hugging Rainbow.
Rainbow grit her teeth at the name, then remembered how the fight with them had ended.
"Twilight, what happened to Thunder Chaser? Did I..." Rainbow trailed off, not wanting to go down that road.
"No, you didn't kill him." Twilight spoke in a low voice. "But from what I overheard, it seems your slamming into him after the Rainboom did massive amounts of damage to his spinal cord and... well, he's now a triplegic. Everything except his front right hoof and the area above his neck is completely paralyzed."
Rainbow paused for a moment, processing what Twilight just told her. "He deserves so much worse." Rainbow finally uttered.
"They managed to get Scootaloo's mother into a mare shelter, which specialize in taking care of victims of domestic abuse. She's... she's really bad."
Rainbow simply nodded. "So where is Thunder Chaser? And why did you order me to be strapped down?"
Twilight took a long time to respond. After what felt like an hour, Twilight finally found herself able to meet Rainbow's questioning gaze.
"He's here, in this hospital."
"WHAT?!" Rainbow shouted, the ECG beeping in distress again. "Let me out of here, I'm gonna finish him off!"
"No, Rainbow." Twilight's glare hardened. "This is why I ordered you to be strapped down. If you kill him you'll be arrested, and we won't be able to legally take Scootaloo out from his care and put her into yours permanently."
Rainbow Dash snorted in annoyance and instantly cried out again from the stabbing pain in her lungs.
"Can you do anything to get me out of here faster, Twi?" Rainbow asked hopefully. "The doctor said I'm gonna have to be stuck here for like, two months."
"I don't really know any healing magic..." Twilight bit her lip. "But I might be able to ask Zecora if she can come up with anything that can heal that eye of yours."
Rainbow Dash nodded. Amidst all the other panic she'd felt when she woke up, the fact that she was half blind now hadn't really sunk in.
"And one more thing, Rainbow." Twilight met her steely gaze. "I sent a letter to Princess Celestia while we were waiting for the doctors to let us see you. Among other things, she said the trial is going to take place roughly a week and a half after your projected release date."
As that sunk in, Rainbow Dash looked over at the filly unable to tear herself away from Rainbow's side. After that, she could legally take care of Scootaloo, and Thunder Chaser would no doubt rot in jail for the rest of his life.
For the first time since waking up Rainbow Dash managed a smile.