Chapter 2: Recovery
The multicolored-maned mare grumbled, knocking on the wooden door for a third time. She knew it was pointless, Rarity usually never opened her shop on the weekends, and even more rarely stayed in when it was closed. However, the pegasus persisted. She had a cloud of guilt hanging over her head since she had left the party the previous night. The light-blue coated mare knew that she had wronged her friend quite terribly, and would stop at nothing to apologize and help her out further if she needed it.
Rainbow Dash gave up trying at the Carousel Boutique. She turned and kicked off the ground, spreading her wings and flapping to build up speed and propel herself into the air. It was time to search the entirety of Ponyville for her friend. However, almost as soon as she reached the town square, her curiosity got the best of her.
A crowd had started to build outside of the small café in town. Rainbow Dash wondered what the commotion was all about, as she didn’t notice anything odd about the café from the air. The pegasus flew down and landed softly on the ground just a few yards from the gathering, then approached on hoof, noticing a large amount of chatter going on between several groups in the crowd. In the sea of multiple colored ponies and manes, she managed to spot her bright pink friend.
“Pinkie! What’s all the commotion about?” she asked the party pony as she trotted up to her. The grimace Pinkie Pie gave her as she turned her attention to Rainbow did nothing but cause concern for the pegasus.
“I heard a pony collapsed her earlier, Dashie. They had all sorts of emergency ponies looking at her and finally took her and the other pony she was with off to the hospital,” Pinkie explained, her demeanor extremely polarizing from her usual upbeat, bubbly personality. “From the way everypony is describing them, it sounds like the two ponies were Twilight and Rarity. I’m really worried, Dashie,” the pink earth pony finished. Rainbow felt like her body had turned to ice at the statement. The thought of one of her friends hurt, sick, or worse made her nearly collapse herself.
The rainbow-maned pegasus took off into the sky. “Pinkie, go find Fluttershy and meet me at the hospital!” she yelled back to her pink friend as she flapped her wings as hard as she could, flying towards Sweet Apple Acres.
~`~`~`~`~
The orange cowpony lifted her back legs off the ground, found her balance point, and thrust them into the tree right behind her, causing it to shake violently. The last five apples that remained attached to the branches came free from their stems, and the blond earth pony maneuvered herself around the tree with great agility, catching them in the basket attached to the saddle that was strapped to her body. She took a deep breath, wiping the wet evidence of her hard work from her brow and inspecting the trees. She had managed to clear out her entire section before noon, a new speed record from what she could remember.
She smiled and quickly trotted back to the barn, excited for the prospect of having a large portion of the day to enjoy for herself. Once she reached the barn, she quickly marked off the section she had completed on a paper hanging attached to a clipboard by the door, then entered and emptied her load into a separate bin marked for processing and cleaning. The earth pony removed and hung her saddlebasket over the side of a small separating fence along the wall of the barn and trotted out, closing the door behind her.
As Applejack did so, a flash of light blue landed less than a foot in front her face. “APPLEJACK! Rairty or Twilight is in trouble and they’re at the hospital! Come on, we need to make sure they’re okay!” Rainbow said as fast as she could. The sudden appearance of her friend caused the cowpony to jump back a few feet and yell in surprise.
“Gosh dang it, RD! Next time you think it’s a good idea to surprise me like that, I’m gonna give you a right hoof to yer face!” the orange mare scolded her friend with an angry look on her face. The look quickly changed once she noticed the worry that was present on the pegasus’ face. “Now, calm down sugarcube. What’s happenin’ to Twilight and Rarity?” she asked.
Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and allowed herself to relax a little. “Somepony at the café in town collapsed. Pinkie told me that the way people were describing it, the pony was either Twilight or Rarity,” she explained.
“You certain?” Applejack asked, now worried, but hoping that maybe Rainbow’s story would change or she had simply misheard her.
“Absolutely certain! We need to hurry and get to Celestia National Hospital and make sure they’re okay!” the multicolored-maned pony said. Her orange friend nodded in agreement and she took off into the air, flying as fast as she could towards the medical center, with the cowpony galloping on hoof right behind her.
~`~`~`~`~
Twilight Sparkle sat in the middle of a line of padded chairs that were all backed against the wall. She stared at the off-white tile on the ground, counting the small black specs that lay indented into each tile, breaking apart the sea of endless blank color. Her insides were tied up in more knots than a sailor learns in training. The pale pink walls of the room didn’t offer much comfort either, and the stale, sterile air she took in with every breath only further reminded her of the artificial environment she was in. The librarian still could not process the grave images she had been witness to less than an hour ago. The thoughts continuously pushed themselves to the front of her head as she pictured every terrible outcome that could occur from this scenario.
She broke her nearly hypnotic staring contest with the floor, stretching her neck out and looking around the room. She was sitting next to two larger unicorns. The stallion with a familiar shade of white fur was comforting the pink furred mare, both of their faces filled with a mixture of fear and worry. The lavender unicorn wasn’t quite sure what to say, or if she should say anything at all to the dressmaker's parents. She bit her lip in hesitation and decided it would be best to just stay quiet.
She looked off towards the opposite corner of the room, where she noticed three fillies. The group that was infamous across Ponyville for their antics, the Cutie Mark Crusaders as the liked to be called, were all huddled together. The yellow earth pony and the orange pegasus were doing their best comfort the white-coated unicorn, Sweetie Belle. The poor cotton candy-maned filly was doing her best to give her friends a smile, but Twilight could tell from the insincerity that the only thing on her mind was her elder sister. The lavender mare stood up to go and join the three young fillies for a bit when she heard the main door to the hospital open.
“Twilight!” said the combined voices of her cowpony and stunt flier friends. Twilight looked over and was able to crack a small smile as the light-blue coated mare flew through the lobby and wrapped her arms around her neck. The orange earth pony trotted up and smiled to her friend, relieved she was safe.
“Thank the heavens you’re okay, Twi,” said Applejack, with a small sigh of relief. The knowledge that one of her friends was safe made her feel a bit better, but she was still uneasy. If Twilight is here, that could only mean that the pony that was in trouble was...
“Where’s Rarity? Is she okay?” Rainbow Dash asked loudly, finishing Applejack's thought. Every pony in the waiting room looked up at the mention of Rarity’s name. The pegasus felt her insides twist up as she recognized all of the ponies gathered at the hospital, none of them being the white unicorn she was searching for. “She’s not… She can’t be! Please tell me she’s okay!” Rainbow begged Twilight.
The lavender mare looked down, upset that she couldn’t give her friend a full answer. “We don’t know, Dash. The doctors haven’t said anything to us. She is still back in the emergency room as far as we know,” Twilight explained. Her voice cracked a little, but she was able to hold in the tears. She had to remain strong for her friends and her fellow unicorn’s family.
Rainbow looked like she had just flown three aerial marathons straight. She collapsed into a chair and covered her face with her hooves and sighed, her emotions finally catching up to her frantic pace. The orange cowpony walked up and wrapped a leg around her rainbow-maned companion. “C’mon now, RD. Rarity is strong, she’ll be fine. I bet she’s on the other side of those doors there makin’ sure she looks right pretty for all of us. You know how upset she gets when she isn’t lookin’ absolutely perfect,” Applejack said, attempting to comfort her friend.
Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy trotted into the open door right then, only to be greeted by the grim sight of the waiting room. All of their friends sitting here with worried, upset looks on their faces meant only one thing in their mind. Twilight’s quick explanation of events further confirmed their feelings. Pinkie Pie went to join the fillies in their corner, the trademark smile and chipper personality no longer in existence in her being. Fluttershy, meanwhile, sat down next to Rainbow Dash, emulating her fellow pegasus’ position in the chair, and becoming the first pony of the group to shed tears.
“I… I just saw her earli… earlier. I’m sorry. I wish I co… could have done something,” she sobbed as she hid her face behind her hair. She didn’t want her friends to see her crying. Twilight patted her on the head. It was all she could think of to do to comfort the frail animal caretaker.
“This isn’t your fault, Fluttershy. I was with her earlier too. There’s nothing we could have done. We just have to hope the doctor can help her out,” Twilight said to her yellow friend, but it did nothing to calm down the jumpy pegasus. As if right on cue, the doctor trotted out of the double doors leading to the emergency room. The earth pony stallion’s dark-blue fur was covered by a white coat, and the stethoscope around his neck held his well-aged, gray mane pressed down against his neck. His flank was mostly exposed, and his coat was cut short to reveal a cutie mark of a stethoscope. He approached Rarity’s parents, and Twilight trotted up to listen in as well.
“Hello everypony. I am Doctor Goodheart. I’m the lead doctor of the team currently taking care of your daughter, Miss Rarity. This is a scary time for you all, I know, but I am pleased to share some good news with you. Your daughter did suffer a cardiac episode, but with a combination of medicines and some blood thinners, we were able to break up and free the clots,” he explained, as Rarity’s parents visibly relaxed with every word he spoke. “However I do have some bad news. In order to prevent a similar or even more life threatening episode, your daughter will have to be on medication for the rest of her life. I also suggest she find a less stressful job,” he continued, flashing a small, gentle smile towards the dressmaker’s parents.
“Oh, thank you doctor!” Rarity’s mother exclaimed. “Can we go see our daughter?” she asked.
“She isn’t awake quite yet, but yes, I will allow you all in for a short time to visit once she wakes up,” the doctor replied. He turned to face Twilight. “You and your friends are also more than welcome to visit her after her family,” he said. With that, he curtly nodded and went back through the double doors into the emergency room.
For the first time in what felt like hours, the lavender mare no longer had knots encasing her insides. She felt the smile curl up across her face. Her friend was going to be okay! She happily trotted over to her friends to share the great news.
After another hour, the doctor came out and fetched the white unicorn’s family. After a few quick goodbyes to their cotton candy-maned companion, the other two fillies quickly left the hospital, happy they could help to comfort their friend. The five friends all trotted near the double doors and waited impatiently for a chance to finally see their friend. Despite the improved mood amongst the friends, however, the grim air still hung in the waiting room. The Elements of Harmony were going to see their friend in the worst condition she had ever been in, and each pony was figuring out quite how to process that fact in the back of their head.
Finally, after several long, grueling minutes of waiting, Rarity’s family walked out. Despite having smiles on their faces, Twilight could tell how emotionally worn out they were from the day of conflicts. The librarian herself felt like she could stand to sleep for an entire day with how drained she already was. As she waved goodbye to her fellow unicorn’s family, she followed the other Elements through the double doors. They were led to a small room near the end of the hallway with the door partially closed.
“Before you go in, keep in mind she is under the influence of a few medications, so she may not be entirely responsive. Try to keep this visit nice and short. We would like her to get some good rest,” the doctor instructed the group of friends before finally pushing the door open. The small room had a window on the far wall, and several machines all surrounding the small bed.
Lying on the bed was the Element of Generosity. Her usually pristine purple mane was tangled and messy, like she had just been awakened from a thousand-year sleep. The unicorn had clear tubing wrapped around her head, going into her nostrils. The monitors surrounding her bed all had cables leading to various parts under her sheets, no doubt attached to some parts of her body. Other equipment held bags of liquid suspended in the air, the plastic tubing leading to a needle that was stuck into her foreleg. Rarity opened her eyes, which were so bloodshot that the unicorn looked evil. She manage to give a smile to her friends as they all piled into her room.
“Rarity! We’re so glad you’re okay!” Twilight said as they all approached the dressmaker.
“Yeah, Rarity, you gave us a right good scare,” Applejack added, taking her hat off and placing it on the table by Rarity’s bedside.
“I can’t wait until you’re all better again! We will have to throw a party to celebrate your recovery!” Pinkie said, bouncing up and down a little bit.
“Um, Rarity, I’m happy you’re okay… please get better soon okay?” Fluttershy added quietly.
Rarity's smile grew even brighter as she took in the well-wishes of all of her friends. “Thank you, everypony. I really do appreciate you all checking up on me. Though, I will NEVER let you see me looking this horrid ever again,” she replied to all of them. Everypony chuckled at the dressmaker’s joke, happy that she could stay so lighthearted through such a traumatic event.
Rainbow Dash, meanwhile, was still standing at the back of the room, still looking quite solemn. After a short while of her friends conversing, she swallowed a bit of air and stepped forward between Twilight and Applejack into Rarity’s sight. She began her apology to her friend, “Hey, Rarity… I’m very happy you’re safe… Um, I just wanted to say I’m so-”
“Rainbow, dear, I know that we do have to talk, but now is not the time or the place. We can discuss what we need to later,” Rarity interrupted. Rainbow had a very frustrated look on her face. She grunted before turning around and walking out of the room as tears welled up into her eyes.
After a slight bit of confusion about the new episode of conflict between their friends, the rest of the Elements turned their attention back towards Rarity. They all spent a few more minutes giving the white unicorn their well-wishes and sharing a few laughs before saying goodbye for the day and shuffling out of the room.
“Twilight, wait one second,” Rarity called out to her fellow unicorn as she was about to close the door. Twilight nodded to Rarity and told the others to go on ahead without her, then went back into the room, closing the door behind her. “Twilight, I just wanted to thank you for everything today. The doctor told me if it weren’t for you being able to tell them how I reacted, and what symptoms I exhibited, I never would have had a chance to make it today,” she said.
Twilight smiled as her eyes glistened from the water welling up inside of them. The white unicorn reached her hoof out, and the lavender mare moved in and wrapped hers around the dressmaker’s neck. They embraced in a long hug, as Twilight felt the first set of tears roll out of her eyes since the initial incident. “I’m just glad you’re okay, Rarity,” Twilight said as she pulled away, wiping the tears from her cheeks. “Get better as soon as you can, and we can make up that lunch that we missed,” the librarian told her friend.
“I look forward to that, especially that tea. It was delightful! I just hope I can clean it out of my fur,” she said, lifting the covers slightly and frowning down at the mark on her flank still dirtied by the spill. Twilight couldn't help but grin. The two unicorns said a quick goodbye, and the lavender mare left, closing the door behind her.
The librarian left the hospital and breathed in the warm evening air. She looked up towards the setting sun, relieved that the tragedy of that day found a way to have a happy ending. She headed back to her library, enjoying the air as it began cooling down around her while Celestia’s sun gave way to Luna’s moon. As she arrived back at the library, she was confronted by her baby dragon assistant.
“Twilight! I heard something happened to Rarity! Is she alright? Does she need my help? What can I do?” the purple dragon said in a panicked voice, grabbing onto Twilight’s fur and pulling impatiently. Twilight simply giggled at him.
“Don’t worry Spike. She’s in the hospital, but she’s fine,” Twilight explained as the baby dragon gave a huge sigh of relief, releasing the unicorn from his grip.
“Oh thank goodness. I couldn’t imagine what I would have done if I found out something really bad happened to her,” the dragon sighed in relief, causing another giggle from Twilight.
“Tell you what, Spike. I’ll take you to see her tomorrow, how does that sound? But right now, all I feel like doing is sleeping. Today was way too emotionally draining,” Twilight said. Spike liked the idea of visiting Rarity the next day. He went back to his normal duties around the library as the lavender unicorn locked up and went up to her bed. She opened her mouth and let out a large yawn as she crawled under the sheets, barely having enough time to pull them over her body before her mind drifted off to sleep.
~`~`~`~`~
The next morning started early for the lavender mare as her dragon companion woke her early. She yawned and rubbed any traces of sleep from her eyes as she checked the clock. She frowned, noticing that Spike had managed to wake her up at the exact minute visiting hours at the hospital started. He sure is eager to go visit her she thought to herself as she dragged herself out of her bed and magically levitated a brush through her mane to clear it from any snags and tangles.
The unicorn finished her morning routine and headed down into the kitchen where she found Spike sitting at the table, a claw bared, working on a small jewel. The lavender mare shook her head. “How long have you been up working on that?” she asked the baby dragon.
“All night!” he replied. The unicorn put a hoof on her face and shook her head at how ridiculous her assistant was being. “I’m just putting a few finishing touches on it. It’s a gift to Rarity,” he said, holding out the jewel to show it off. It was a small, deep blue sapphire. Inspecting it closely, Twilight noticed that the lines the dragon had carved into it made it resemble one of the diamonds on Rarity’s cutie mark. She was impressed, to say the least.
After double checking to make sure she was properly groomed to go into public, the unicorn and the dragon left the library and headed towards the town square. The air was a bit chilled that day, causing several of the streetside vendors to remain closed for the moment. However, the duo managed to find a decent flower vendor and paid for a bouquet of various colored flowers for their recovering friend. The unicorn levitated the flowers with her magic, and the duo headed off to their destination.
They arrived at Celestia National Hospital, a relatively medium sized building just on the outskirts of the town square. On the outside it was a square, bland building, quite easy to ignore or miss if you weren’t looking for it. A small statue of their Princess of the Sun stood on either side of the main doorway. As the duo approached the doorway, they noticed Rarity’s family walking out.
“Hey there! How is Rari… ty?” she tried to ask as the family pushed past her, practically ignoring her. Twilight noticed that all three of them were hanging their heads. That’s odd… maybe they had to tell Rarity about having to find a different job and got yelled at, she thought to herself. She shrugged and exchanged looks with Spike before heading into the waiting room.
As soon as they entered the waiting room, they noticed Doctor Goodheart waiting by the emergency room doors. “Ah, Miss Twilight Sparkle?” the doctor asked. Twilight nodded as she approached.
“Hello, Doctor. This is my friend Spike. We came to visit Rarity, we have a couple of gifts for her,” Twilight replied to the doctor. He gave the duo a grim look.
“You had better come with me to my office,” Doctor Goodheart said, pushing open the emergency room door. Confused, the unicorn and dragon obediently followed him down the hall, quickly walking past the room Rarity was in. Twilight gave the room a glance through the cracked door as they passed. She noticed the bed was empty and remade, and all of the equipment and machines were gone. Oh, I bet they moved her to a different recovery area, the unicorn thought as she continued past and into the small office.
Twilight and Spike took a seat in two chairs situated in front of the desk. The room had a sense of intimidation in it, with several small bookshelves filled with medical references, and frames filling the walls with degrees that the doctor had earned both honorably and through his own personal knowledge. He sat down in his seat and rubbed his eyes with his hooves. Twilight now noticed how physically tired the doctor looked. It was as if he had been awake all night.
“Miss Sparkle. This is going to be extremely tough to take,” the doctor began, gaining the full attention of the confused unicorn and dragon. “Last night, we lowered the dosage of blood thinners and medications your friend Rarity was on as was scheduled for her treatment. She responded well to the change, and it seemed as if we were going to be able to release her in a couple of days,” the doctor continued. “Unfortunately, we had some major complications last night. Several pieces of the clot we had broken up in her heart had managed to travel through her bloodstream freely flowing. By lowering the dosage of the medications, we increased the chances of those clots getting lodged in other veins or arteries in her body.
“Your friend Rarity suddenly lost quite a bit of function in the middle of the night. She crashed and went into full cardiac arrest. It turns out the clots had travelled and lodged themselves into several parts of her brain. Rarity suffered from several simultaneous strokes, shutting down and killing a lot of her brain and body function. Unfortunately, we couldn’t revive her even to a vegetative state. She passed away in the early hours of the morning. I’m sorry,” he finished, giving the unicorn and dragon an extremely sorrowful look. The flowers Twilight had been subconsciously levitating fell to the ground as her concentration broke, as did the sapphire in Spike’s hand. Both of their mouths hung open, absolutely shocked at the news.
“What… but… how? She was fine yesterday? How could that happen?” Twilight stammered. Her mind was completely numb as it overloaded trying to process the information. Spike had his face in his hands, sobbing loudly. The doctor stood up and walked over to Twilight’s seat, putting a hoof on her shoulder.
“I’m sorry, Miss Sparkle. It is a complication that can arise randomly after any cardiac event. If there was any way to prevent it, we would have made sure Miss Rarity was still with us right now. Unfortunately, it is something that can not be foreseen. You have my condolences, and I can offer you and your friends the hospital counseling services free of charge if you need someone to talk to. I wish I could do more for you,” the doctor said.
Twilight felt her emotions begin to take over her body. Her vision blurred and she blinked as she cleared the tears, letting them roll down her cheeks, staining her fur. She turned and hugged Spike in an attempt to comfort him.
“Spike, I know this is going to be very tough, but I need you to do a task for me,” she said through a cracked voice. After a few seconds, the dragon wiped his eyes and nodded slowly. “Go and find the other girls. Tell them to meet me at the library. I should be the one to break the news to them,” she explained. Spike simply nodded again, rendered speechless from the shock he had just suffered. He stood from his chair and slowly shuffled out of the office, gasping for breath between each sob.
As soon as Spike was out of the office, Twilight buried her face into the doctor’s coat. She cried loudly as the doctor attempted to console her. She didn’t want to believe it at all, but she knew with every pat on her back and each kind word from the doctor that it was true. The only thought that ran through her mind was Rarity is gone... forever.