"Twilight?"
A voice called to her, bringing Twilight out of her slumber. "Mmm?"
"Twilight!"
Her eyes opened, finding her friends all looking worried at her. When they saw her open her eyes they all looked relieved. Then Applejack frowned at Rainbow, scolding her for yelling at Twilight. It gave Twilight time to look around the room as she sat up. They were in a hospital room, their bodies patched up and bandaged. She looked out the window, the rain had stopped and the sun was going down.
"How long was I out..?" Twilight finally managed to ask, her voice dry.
"You passed out at the castle, you've been unconscious for 26 hours.." Fluttershy replied. "You worried us.."
"How did we get here?"
"The princess arrived shortly after you collapsed," Rarity joined in. "She rushed us to the hospital while the royal guard and her sister examined the ruins. I should warn you darling, she is quite upset by this whole affair.."
Twilight could understand that. Everything about this was something that should, and could have been avoided. She looked at her friends, seeing them all hurt, but at least she did cheer her up a bit. "Does she know?" She didn't need to clarify, they all knew what she meant.
"We had to tell her Twi," answered Applejack. "We told her everything, including how Pax.. How he.." She trailed off, looking away as if the talking about it and looking at her friends brought her pain. "How he saved us.."
They all went silent, despite it having been several hours and their cries had stopped, the pain had never faded. They all felt guilty. While Pax was at fault, they could have handled it better. Pinkie Pie hadn't even spoken a word, she out of all of them looked the most depressed. Her mane was no longer puffy, her eyes no longer sparkled with joy. She was just a shell of her former self.
Rainbow was the one to break the silence. "So, what do we do now?"
No one answered, because no one knew what to do. Twilight searched her mind, trying to come up with a solution, but everything still hurt, and she had no idea where to begin. She didn't even know how to get into that dimension in the first place.
"I don't know," she finally admitted. "I really don't know.."
"But we will try and save him, right?"
This time it was Pinkie who spoke, she looked pleadingly at Twilight, as if begging for her to reassure her. Twilight looked back at her friend, not sure what to answer, not sure what she could promise.
"Pinkie, I.."
"No!" Pinkie cut in. "Tell me we're going to try! Tell me we're not going to forget about him and just leave him to suffer in a dimension filled with darkness!" Tears started to move down her cheeks, her lips quivered and finally she let herself lay down and started to sob, moving the blanket over her to hide her tears from them.
They all looked at her, but nopony did anything. Pinkie needed to be alone with her thoughts for a moment before they could try and comfort her. Nopony spoke again, only the soft sobs of Pinkie broke that silence. It was Fluttershy who ventured to her bed and laid next to her friend, putting her hooves around Pinkie, letting her cry into her chest as Pinkie embraced her in return.
Rainbow looked away in shame. The things she said to Pax, they were horrible, cruel even. Did she mean them? No, after all, she had trained him to help him become a hero. Pax was strange, almost insanely optimistic as he kept practicing and training, even to the point where he would throw up in a bush.
A smile graced her lips, and soon enough she started to chuckle. They all looked at Rainbow with puzzled and slightly worried expressions. Rainbow waved them off with a hoof, still snickering. "Sorry, it's just.. I remember one time, I was trying to help Pax work on his reflexes while he was running. So while he ran I would fire lightning bolts close by, safely of course," she quickly assured them as Rainbow could see their worried expressions.
"The stallion did pretty good, but he was so focused on dodging whatever I sent at him that he didn't see the fence coming up." She started to laugh. "He ran straight through it, rolled down the hill and landed in the river!" Rainbow laughed. "And when he came up again he asked if he had passed, the idiot was not even aware he had run through a fence!"
They all started to chuckle as that sounded just like Pax. His optimism often kept him from realizing when he had crashed into something the first few seconds. Applejack narrowed her eyes at Rainbow. "Wait a minute, that was you guys!?"
Rarity giggled. "One time he came in and asked for that outfit I made for him. He was like a little colt wanting a toy. I told him I didn't have time because I had this large order I had to finish, and I had to get some gems. Of course the silly stallion offered to help me, I tried to tell him it would not be necessary, but as you all know he's quite stubborn. He ran of like he was a knight on a great quest."
"Did you get the gems?" Applejack asked with a small smirk.
Rarity nodded. "Oh yes, but he looked like he had been through quite an ordeal, but still he acquired them. I lend him my bath and he collapsed on my couch."
Twilight smiled. "He was really helpful.. I would let him study in my library, but he always had time to help me or Spike with some of the tasks.. Spike really appreciated it."
Applejack smiled proudly. "He was very helpful on the farm too. Never once did that stallion complain! Not once!"
"He was also very kind to the animals.." Fluttershy joined in. "Even when some of them scared him, he always listened to what I had to say and he trusted me.."
Pinkie had come out of the covers, wiping her eyes. "He helped me bake.. A lot.. And he told me.." She trailed off. The others looked intently at her, eagerly awaiting her to continue. "He told me he thought I was maybe the most important hero of all to him. He said no matter what, I would always smile and keep going.. That gave him the will to keep going too.." She had a hard time expressing it better, or making it as clear as the others did, but they understood, and it explained a lot.
No matter how many times he failed, no matter how many times he would fall down or get hurt, Pax would always stand up, laugh it off and continue on. In that sense, it made perfect sense Pinkie was his hero.
Twilight looked to her friend. "Pinkie, I promise I will do everything I can to bring him home.."
Pinkie looked at her. "Pinkie promise?"
Twilight nodded. "Cross My Heart, Hope to Fly, Stick a Cupcake in my Eye!
"We promise to, don't we?" Fluttershy asked.
"Yeah, of course we do!" Rainbow said. "Someone has to save that moron!"
"And we owe him for saving our hides.." Applejack nodded.
"I'm still disappointed in Pax, but he doesn't deserve to be trapped like this." Rarity declared.
All of them agreed to try and save Pax. None of them knew how yet, but they all knew they would try. None of them would want to leave their friend behind, none of them wanted this to be the end.
Somehow, someday, they would get their friend back...
To be continued....?