Chapter 24
Rainbow and Applejack ran into the destroyed camp. Tents that once stood tall and brown now burned with a fiery intensity. Soldiers were intently trying to put the fires out as they blazed through the camp. Most of the fortifications were destroyed, but the medical supplies and the others that were raided were spared from most of the fires, but the medical tents and the command tents were all destroyed in the attack. AJ and Rainbow Dash ran towards where Luna was told to have been.
Luna was sitting with Rook around a makeshift medical tent that was over filled with burn victims and those who were maimed from the fireballs. Rainbow ignored the patients around her and rushed into the tent. “Luna! It’s Blaze! He’s lost a lot of blood! I don’t know how long he will survive. Luna help him!” Rainbow said as Luna ignored her.
She was standing over a table trying to get a spell to work. “Luna are you even listening to me?! Blaze is dying!” Rainbow yelled. Rook appeared in front of her with Derpy.
“Rainbow, now isn’t the best time. Come with us, we’ll help Blaze.” Rook said calmly but clearly distressed.
“Rook what the hay is going on?” Applejack said as she followed him into a conjoining tent. Rainbow placed Blaze on the table and Derpy began to work. “Rook. Explain. Who is Luna healing that could be of more importance than the highest ranking member of the army?!” Rainbow demanded.
“Sit down. Please. Applejack, could you help Derpy for a little bit? I need to talk to Rainbow about some things.” Applejack nodded and went to help her the best she could. Rook looked back at Rainbow and gave a sigh. “When the fireballs began to rain from the sky, Luna grabbed me to go find Linus. We needed him to see if he could help evacuate the soldiers. When we arrived at his tent we found him inside. Bloodied and burned. One of the fireballs landed right on top of his tent.
“Luna went crazy. She couldn’t handle seeing him like that. I had to grab Linus and send him to Derpy. She tried her best, but nothing we did could fully heal the wounds. They were too deep and too badly burned. Luna has been trying to get him to wake up, but to no avail.” Rook said as he explained everything that had happened. “After the fireballs stopped, we started to get over hauled by soldiers who were burned beyond recognition and those who lost limbs. Luna tried to heal as many as she could, but there were just too many. She can only do so much before her magic weakens.”
“How long has she been working on him?” Rainbow asked.
“I don’t know. Too long. But for right now, don’t disturb Luna. She is too fragile and he is all she cares about right now. You know how you feel for Blaze? That’s how she feels for Linus. You know that feeling. That feeling that doesn’t leave. That feeling that when they are hurt, you hurt, you feel the same pain that they do. When you can get lost in each other’s eyes. That feeling for the other, where you feel inseparable against all odds. Luna has never felt that. Linus is the only pony who has been able to offer her that.” Rook said as he recalled all the feelings he felt all those years ago.
“What about Blaze? Can Derpy fix his wing? Can she mend bones and fix burns as bad as what he has?” Rainbow asked.
Rook bowed his head. “I don’t know. The burns should be fixable, but it will take time. His wing…” Rook said as he gathered the courage to tell her. “From what I saw when you brought him in here, it looks like it may need to be amputated. His bones are snapped and the muscles torn beyond repair.” He said sorrowfully.
Rainbow let out a small squeak of shock. She covered her mouth as tears began to fall from her eyes. “So he’ll never be able to fly? Never again in his life?” She asked as the realization came to her.
“Yes. He will be grounded for the rest of his life.” Rook said.
Rainbow lowered her head. Never fly again. A Pegasus who is unable to fly…I can’t believe it… Rainbow thought as she imagined what that meant for them. He won’t be able to fly. What will everypony think of me? That I settled? That I stayed with him out of pity? That I can’t even get a true Pegasus? She shook her head. No. This is Blaze. He knows how to get through things. We can figure this out. She stopped her thoughts. But if we have a filly, he won’t be able to teach them how to fly. They’ll be embarrassed by him.
“Rainbow? Are you ok?” Rook asked. She looked up at him. “Yea. Yea I’m fine. Can I see him? I want to be the first one he sees when he wakes up.” She said.
“Sure. Go ahead.” He led her back to Blaze.
“Applejack, hand me the cream to your right. They should help get rid of the burns.” Derpy ordered Applejack. She returned to cutting the wing.
“Rainbow! What in tarnation are you doing here?” Applejack said as she handed the creams over.
“I came here so I could see Blaze. I want to be here when he gets up.” She said as she moved over to the table. Derpy had already began to saw off his wing.
Not able to fly… She couldn’t get the thought out of her mind. Derpy had just cut through half of his wing. Rainbow looked away. She couldn’t see him like this. She couldn’t see the one thing that made him a Pegasus being ripped from his body. Derpy began cut through the rest of the bone. Rainbow cringed as she heard the sound of bone being cut by saws and knives.
Through the Everfree Forest
Past those rocky ruins
I will always be waiting
For you to be by my side
Over the Macintosh Mountains
And over those retched Badlands
Soon you’ll be there with me
With me forever at last.
Past those slimy wet swamps
At the beaches of the sea
I will be there waiting
For you to finally arrive
If you’re not there tomorrow
If you are not with me
I will stay there waiting
For you to be with me
This song he sang. He sang this to me when I was alone. When I was vulnerable and without anypony. The saw rammed into the table as Derpy cut through the final part of the bone. Rainbow let out a small squeak as she saw the wing separated from his mutilated body. He was lying there, burned, beaten, and without a wing. Rainbow let a silent tear run down her face. She couldn’t imagine living without one of her wings. She ran a hoof through the feathers on her back. I couldn’t get rid of these. I need these to be me. I’m nothing without them. She got up and moved to the table. She stood over Blaze and looked down at his mangled body.
She took his hoof and placed it in his. He was cold. Lifeless. “Will he be alright?” She asked Derpy weakly.
“He’ll be fine. If we can get some blood into him. He has lost a lot of it. We need somepony who is willing to donate blood. Without the blood, he isn’t going to make it.” She said. Rainbow ran over to her and grabbed her shoulders.
“I’ll do it! If it will save him I’ll donate the blood.” Rainbow said frantically. If I can save him, I will. She thought. Derpy gave a nervous nod of her head. She grabbed the supplies needed to draw the blood. Rainbow took a seat next to Blaze and held his hoof. Derpy came back with a needle and a bag. She hooked the bag and the needle together and stuck Rainbow in the arm. Blood started to drain and it collected into the bag. After Derpy had drained the amount of blood she needed, she stopped, pulled the needle out, and began to get the transfuser ready.
“You need to drink water. And you need sleep. Without either, you will be too tired to do anything later.” Derpy recommended.
“I’ll do that when I know he is safe and well.” Rainbow shot back. Derpy began to transfer the blood when Rook and Luna arrived to the tent.
“Blaze? Rainbow! What happened?” Luna asked. Rainbow went over the days events with the catapults. She didn’t take her eyes off of Blaze, and she didn’t mention Big Mac’s death, for Applejack’s sake.
“Will he be ok? Will he be able to continue to fight?” Luna asked.
“Once the blood gets transferred to him, he should be ok. All we can do from there is to watch him and make sure he wakes up safely.” Applejack said.
Derpy finished the blood transfusion and stitched the side his wing was amputated from. “Now we wait for him to wake. Applejack, could you stay here and watch him? I need to see the other patients. If anything goes wrong, come get me.” She said and walked out to help those outside.
Applejack walked over to Rainbow who was sitting wearily by Blaze, still holding his hoof. “That was a great thing you did. Giving him your blood. Most wouldn’t do that now. Not in the war zone.” Applejack said.
Rainbow smiled. “Oh AJ. You know I wouldn’t leave anypony hanging.” Applejack gave a light laugh. “Yea I know. You never left us by ourselves when you had the choice.”
Blaze moved his head slightly to the sounds of them talking. “Blaze?” Rainbow asked hoping he was awake. He didn’t respond. Not even a shake of his head. Rainbow lowered her head.
“He’ll be ok sugarcube. He received the best medical help I have ever seen. If we had her with us, we wouldn’t have lost as many as we had while we were imprisoned.” Applejack said.
“Do you really believe he will be alright?” Rainbow asked. “He just lost what makes a Pegasus, a Pegasus. His wing. His ability to fly. It’s the only thing a Pegasus ever dreams of doing, is learning how to fly. It’s an amazing feeling. The rush of the wind ruffling through your wings, the exhilarating rush of adrenaline when in a dive, the feeling of weightlessness as you soar above the clouds.” She said reminiscing her years in Ponyville. “All that gone because of this war. A Pegasus needs his wing. It’s humiliating being a Pegasus who can’t fly.”
Applejack had never known what flying really meant to a Pegasus. She wasn’t ignorant about their ability, but she never thought anything of it. There were Pegasus who flew around Ponyville all the time. It was just natural to see them. Rainbow ran a hoof through his mane. “He won’t be ok. I’ve seen what being unable to fly does to a Pegasus.” She said thinking of Scootaloo. They sat in silence for a few minutes, the other unwillingly to say anything. Blaze moved his head again and made a slight groan.
“Blaze? Are you awake?” Rainbow asked as he started to open his eyes. When he opened them, he saw Rainbow over him, smiling as he stared into her eyes.
“Rainbow.” He said weakly, with a smile on his face. Rainbow’s smile widened.
“I’m here Blaze.” She said as she gripped his hoof tighter.
“Is everypony ok? How many did we-“ He stopped. Something wasn’t right. “Rainbow…Why can’t I feel my left wing?” He asked with a worried look.