Fluttershy huddled close to the scaled chest of the dragon that was carrying her, the wind that was whipping against her the entire time drowning out any other noise that could have been heard. The speed that the dragon was capable of, let alone able to sustain, was mind boggling. Once, a few hours ago, the yellow mare had dared to look in the direction he was carrying her, and to her utter shock, had seen through watery eyes the standard “mach cone” that began to form at near Sonic Rainboom speeds. Sure, technically Rainbow had broken through the barrier twice before, but maintaining that kind of speed for a long period of time was, as far as Fluttershy was aware, something the cyan mare was never able to do. Of course, at this speed, the dry air was torture to her eyes, and she was forced to look away soon afterward.
It was a terrible trip to say in the slightest. Even in the best of health, flying at this height, Sarlaka's a cruising altitude being almost twice that of most pegasi, for such sustained periods would have been debilitating for any pegasus. Of course, Fluttershy was anything but in the best of health, and several times she found it somewhat difficult to breathe in the thin air. Each time, she refused to voice any concern in fear that any delay would be too long of a wait, but every time it happened, the dragon noticed, dropped his altitude, and slowed down just enough for the pegasus to recover. Then, after ten minutes or so, he would rise again, pick up speed, and tear through the sky like no other creature in the world could.
Now if only they had been able to pick up some sort of food, the yellow mare not having much in several days now, even with her entire journey back. Taking only a couple days, she had gone faster for longer than she could have ever imagined, and had turned a week long trip into a two day one. Of course, the sacrifice was that she didn't stop for anything, forgoing food, sleep, and basic medical care of her damaged wing to maintain that speed. She had been a little luckier with water, the clouds that she passed through providing just enough for her to survive, but either way, she was feeling woozy from malnutrition.
Suddenly, Sarlaka banked to the side, and the pair suddenly started to fall from the sky in a controlled dive. Fluttershy's stomach lurched as a sense of weightlessness overtook her, the tiny mare squeaking as they accelerated slightly more. Daring to suffer the pain that looking forward would bring her, the pegasus peaked out from her spot, and peered through the protective arms of the dragon. What she saw sent a flurry of emotions though her, for what she saw was, after only flying until around midnight, was the shadowy form of a familiar mesa in the ocean of the black earth.
“Kindness! Hold on tight, alright!?” Sarlaka yelled over the deafening wind.
Not bothering to try to even yell back, she just nodded into his chest, hoping that he would be able to feel her head bobbing. Whether he could or not was lost to the mare, or maybe it didn't matter to him how she even answered, for within only a few seconds before they would slam into the side of the mesa, the dragon deftly tilted his entire body upright. Sarlaka, his body now oriented vertically, backwinged fiercely, the mare in his grasp feeling his chest muscles working furiously to slow the two's speed down from nearly supersonic to nil in just a few seconds. With a few more strong strokes, the dragon's feet and left foreclaw grabbed hold of the stone mesa, placing the two right in front of the former cavern entrance.
Shifting his weight slightly, as well as making sure he had a good hold of solid stone, Fluttershy felt Sarlaka moving her in his right foreclaw, and as gently as a creature that disproportionately larger than her could, placed her onto the tiny ledge that was left. Immediately, she hobbled over to where Rainbow was, the darkness making finding the wounded pegasus somewhat of a challenge. However, even with only an inkling of moonlight to light up the place, the walled in ledge plus the large draconian body behind her blocking out most of the light, the small space meant that there wasn't many areas she could look, so it only took half a minute to find the mare.
Fluttershy nearly broke out in tears when she saw the shattered form of her sleeping friend, the boulder obviously still placed right where she was forced to leave it. It was hard to tell from both the darkness as well as the thick cyan hair that covered most of the mare's body, but it was still noticeable enough that the skin underneath had grown deathly pale all over her face, while across her chest her skin had started to become slightly discolored with black and blue. The mare's breathing was slow and shallow, and upon closer inspection, Fluttershy heard the heartbeat inside Rainbow's chest beating furiously as the organ did its best to make due with whatever blood it had access to. Finally, and possibly most alarming, was how cold Rainbow's skin was, the pegasus' body nearly as cold as ice. None of these signs were good ones by themselves, but together, it painted a very grim picture.
As softly as possible, the yellow pony nudged Rainbow Dash, “Hey Rainbow, its... its time to wake up.”
A too soft groan emanated from Rainbow's mouth as she too slowly stirred. Blinking slightly, the broken pegasus turned towards the ragged Fluttershy. The cyan pegasus' eyes were completely glazed over in both confusion and exhaustion, “Oh... hello 'Shy. Is it the real you this time? I don't...wanna talk to the... fake one again. She keeps leaving me...”
She decided not to question what that statement was supposed to even mean, “Yes Dash, its the real me this time, and I promise I’m not going anywhere.”
“Oh... well that's good.” Rainbow gazed off into nothingness for a few seconds, before her eyes focused back onto Fluttershy somewhat, “Oh, hello 'Shy. Is this is the real you, or that fake one again?”
“Yes Dash, its... umm... its the real me still...”
“Oh... well good. You're much prettier than that fake one anyways,” Rainbow managed a half-smile half-wince. The wounded pegasus attempted to raise a foreleg just like before, but could barely lift the appendage more than a few inches off of the ground.
Fluttershy took hold of the foreleg into her splintered hooves, brought the cyan leg to her face, and rubbed her cheek against the cold hoof attached to it. Faking a smile, the yellow mare whispered, “I look terrible Dash, and you know it.”
“Nah, you look beautiful, like... umm...” Rainbow scrunched up her face a little bit, “... like... I'm not sure... it's hard to think...”
“That's... that's ok Dash. Oh!” the yellow pegasus continued to force a smile as she shifted her mane to the other side of her head, revealing a bright red feather tucked in her ear, “You were right Dash, the feather really did help me get there extra quick.”
Rainbow Dash winced as her breathing got painful for a moment, “I knew my 'Shy could do it...”
The two were silent for a few seconds before Sarlaka spoke in a hushed tone, “How is she?”
The first response that he got was the pained coughing of their wounded friend. The coughs were a deep, uncontrolled, and painful hacking that worried Fluttershy to no end. The coughing continued, turning to heaves as Rainbow turning her head to the side as so to face the ground next to her. Finally, near the end of her fit, bits of bright red blood escaped her mouth, blood spilling out of her lungs. Thankfully, the terrible coughing ended, allowing Rainbow to finally lower her head back down to the cold and hard ground. As if she was answering Sarlaka, Fluttershy could only manage to lower and shake her head in despair.
Rainbow turned slightly towards Sarlaka, though her eyes weren't even close to facing the dragon's direction, “Oh, hello Scaley. I didn't expect you to... to be here. I thought you were... busy dancing with... those mushrooms again...”
Sarlaka forced a downcast chuckle, “I was, but when I heard you were here, I told them that I had to leave to see the most awesome pony ever.”
“Oh... that's cool I guess...” Rainbow trailed off for a second, her mind obviously stuck in a haze, before looking back up, “Hey, did you know that Fluttershy and I totally did it?”
Even with Rainbow in such a situation, Fluttershy couldn't help but to blush furiously at the very private information that was just freely revealed. Burying her face into the cyan leg in an attempt to possibly hide herself from Sarlaka, all she could hear was a genuine chuckle, “No I did not. How was she?”
“She was... totally awesome...”
“That's good to hear,” Sarlaka chuckled one last time, “Why don't we get you out of here, and you can tell me all about what kinds of activities... other than that that you two did while you were out? That sound good?”
Rainbow lifted her head for a second, before placing it back down on the ground in pain, “Alright, but I just... just... want to warn you... that... you better keep your claws off of her... cause she's mine...”
“I'll make sure to keep that in mind,” Sarlaka smiled. Fluttershy took a few steps away as the dragon reached forward with his free foreclaw, grabbed hold of the massive stone that was pinning Rainbow to the ground, and carefully pulled it away. Unsurprisingly, Sarlaka lifted the object with relative ease, though the grunt from the cyan mare told that it was a painful process nonetheless. As soon as the stone was clear, the yellow pegasus ran back up next to her friend, and did a quick assessment of her lower body.
Thankfully enough, it looked like the stone had not actually had its entire weight on top of Rainbow, but was mostly supported by several other stones that were on either side of the formerly pinned mare. Not only that, but because the boulder was partially supported by other objects, it appeared the the blood flow to her lower body had not been cut off any significant amount. Finally, even with the rock on top of her, it seemed that her hooves were mostly free, the two cyan objects very much uncrushed.
Of course, that was where the positives ended, and the long list of negatives began. Massive bruising was spotted all along her lower body, the blemishes made obvious by the various scrapes and patches of her coat literally ripped out. Both of Rainbow's legs were broken in at least a dozen places each, the hope of Rainbow ever having full functional use of them ever again an impossibility. That wasn't even mentioning the broken pelvis, possible damage to her digestive reproductive systems, potential kidney hemorrhaging, minor muscle tearing, and her shredded prismatic tail.
Fluttershy felt a hoof on her cheek. Looking back towards Rainbow's face, she found that the mare had somehow found strength to lift the leg up to her face. Again, the yellow pegasus wrapped her forelegs around Rainbow's so that to support the weak appendage, allowing the cyan hoof gently caress her cheek. Giving a small smile, Rainbow whispered, “Hey, guess what?”
The yellow mare couldn't help but to tear up at the critical condition of her friend, “Y... yes Rainbow?”
“I figured out what we're doing for our first real date together...” Rainbow closed her eyes in her attempts to think. Even in all the pain, she smiled, “We're going gorgon hunting...”
The tears instantly dried up in confusion, “... what?”
Rainbow laughed, holding her side with her other forelegs, “I... I guess my jokes aren't very good right now. I actually... why don't we... how about...”
“Shhhh...” Fluttershy leaned in close to Rainbow Dash's ear, “How about you just rest for now, and you can tell me later.”
Nodding, Rainbow lowered her foreleg, and appeared to enter a state of uncomfortable rest. Obviously sensing a lull in the conversation, Sarlaka reached into the cave awkwardly, and taking care to be as gentle as possible, maneuvered his foreclaw so that it was next to Rainbow. Fluttershy, after taking a few steps back, knew what was about to happen, and with both of them bearing saddened frown, Sarlaka picked up the shattered pegasus.
Instantly, Rainbow opened her eyes wide in pain, “AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!”
Fresh tears spilling out of her eyes, Fluttershy wished there was another way to bring the mare back to Sarlaka's home. Unfortunately, there was no other way, and doing the only thing that she could think of, she beat her wings, and slowly flew towards where Sarlaka had curled up his foreclaw to protect the chromatic mare from the impending trip. She landed close to Rainbow, and with the most careful of movements, snuggled up so she and Rainbow were pressed up next to each other. With one foreleg, she hugged her mare softly, hoping not to further aggravate the broken ribs any further.
With the other foreleg, she gently began to stroke the blood-crusted prismatic mane of her friend's, doing whatever she could to help the tortured pony. It appeared to have worked, at least a little, for while Sarlaka had begun to take off, bringing with it a lot of shaking and jolting movements, Rainbow seemed to have calmed down, the screaming cry slowly diminishing to occasional grunts of pain. Soon, they found themselves at the edge of Sonic Rainboom speeds, and with the yellow mare gently stroking her patient's mane, the cyan mare quickly faded into unconsciousness. Sighing, she was thankful that Rainbow wouldn't have to be awake in agony for the entire trip back, one that would take at least until after sunrise; a seven hour trip.
Fluttershy just prayed Rainbow Dash would wake up at the end of it.
A/N: Nope, can't think of anything here, so insert a funny joke.