"Mac!" Rainbow Dash stared at the scene before her. One minute, the two had been fighting, rain falling around them from the last remnants of atmospheric magic. The next, there was a burst of purple light and both of them collapsed in a smoking heap. Applejack was there too, she witnessed the scene and rushed in to help the two collapsed fighters.
Rainbow, however, was powerless. She was contained within a magical field and could do nothing but watch and hyperventilate as her friend tried and failed to wake her lover. The confinement and helplessness were eating away at the brightly colored pegasus. She started pounding on the formless, invisible walls of her enchanted prison. "AJ!" She screamed. "GET ME OUT OF HERE!" Tears streamed down her face as she continued beating away at the energies binding her.
Applejack looked around for a moment before finding a discarded sword in the mud. She grabbed it and ran towards the spot were Rainbow was held. "Hold on, Rainbow." She tried to swing the weapon, but the foreign movement proved too much for the farmer and the sword ended up in the mud once more. Not knowing what else to do, the orange pony turned and started kicking away at the forcefield. "Don't ya worry, these things wear down." She was speaking more to herself than to her friend.
"H-how do you know that?" Rainbow pressed herself against the far end of the magical cell so she wouldn't get hit if it collapsed. No, when it collapsed. She couldn't let herself get hurt carelessly, she needs to be able to help Mac once she's freed.
"That fella was helpin' me with the trees." Applejack continued kicking, but her strength was starting to give out. "He was practicin' his magic on some a' the dead ones."
A cold, sinking realization hit Rainbow. "That's why there was an explosion. I-it's all my fault. I jumped to conclusions and Mac tried to protect me. It's all my fault!"
"No! Sugarcube, it ain't." She kicked at the cage again and lost her footing, landing in the mud. "They're alive, that means they can get better."
"How do you know?!" Rainbow didn't mean to snap at her friend, but she did, and it sent the farmer over the edge.
"Ah Don't! Ah don't know the first thing 'bout what happened, but Ah ain't gonna give up just cause Ah'm scared!" With a scream, she put the last of her strength into another kick, but it still made no difference. She turned to face her friend with tears streaming down her face. "Ah'm sorry, Ah can't- Ah'm gonna go get Twilight, she'll know what ta do." She ran off towards town. "Ah'm sorry!"
Rainbow couldn't understand why Applejack would be the one apologizing. It wasn't her fault that-
Movement!
Rainbow looked towards the two fallen fighters. It had just been for a moment and out of the corner of her eye, but there was no mistake, she saw one of them move! "Mac?!"
There was another movement. One of them started to get up. But it wasn't Mac. The strange creature he had been fighting pulled itself up to its feet and started stumbling towards the imprisoned pegasus. He collapsed near the abandoned sword and took hold of it. "Protect him." With a grunt, he threw the sword towards the prison. It passed through the barrier as if there was nothing there. There was pain in his voice as the creature struggled to speak again. "You have to want to protect him."
"I do, I love him, tell me how!"
"AAAUGH!" Purple sparks started dancing across the creatures body, causing him to writhe in agony. "Take it!" He yelled, breathing heavily. "Take the sword! Concentrate on what you want to protect and walk out!"
Without hesitation, she picked up the sword, closed her eyes, and thought about Mac, the time they spent together, and the time they will spend together. She didn't notice the purple glow forming around both the sword and her own body. With a yell, she charged forward, not knowing whether or not she would make it past the barrier.
But she did.
After she had gone several paces, she opened her eyes and spit out the sword. She was free. Now she could get Mac to the hospital. Ignoring the pain in her wing, she flew as quickly as she could to the storage shed and, after a short search, found what she was after. She flew back to the scene of the fight, cargo net in tow, and laid it on the ground next to Mac. She rolled him onto the net as gently as she could and prepared to take off.
"GAAAHH!"
Rainbow stopped at the sound of the creature's scream. She looked over just in time to see him try to get up and collapse. It was her fault that he was hurt too, she couldn't leave him. But she couldn't put him in the net with Mac, not with those sparks coming off of him.
She ran over and clamped her teeth down on the creature's shirt. Then she dragged him over to where the ropes for the cargo net lay. This was going to take everything she had, but she had no choice. She's flown carrying multiple ponies before, she can do this. She took the ropes in her hooves and started flapping her wings for all she was worth. She slowly managed to lift herself into the air, then the creature, then finally, Big Mac in the cargo net.
With no momentum to help her along, the flight to the hospital was a long and arduous battle against her own screaming muscle, every fiber burning with pain. But she made it. She lowered her cargo safely to the ground at the hospital doors and stumbled through the doorway just in time to pass out.
She woke up hours later in a darkened hospital room. Enough light came in through the window that she could see that she was alone in the room. She could also see that she was hooked up to an I.V. She ripped the needle out of her leg and ignored the protests of her aching body as moved out into the hallway to find Mac. She found him a few rooms down. The door was locked, but she could see him through the window.
Once more, tears escaped her eyes as she placed a hoof against the glass. "You're safe."
"Rainbow!" The colorful pegasus turned to see Twilight walking down the hall towards her. The purple unicorn had a look of concern on her face. "Aren't you supposed to be resting? What are you doing out of- Rainbow! You're bleeding!"
Rainbow looked down to see that she was indeed bleeding from the place where she pulled out the I.V. line. "It's nothing." She wiped the tears from her eyes. "How's Mac?"
"He's fine, it was just a magical overload. He's just sleeping. It's a defense mechanism that all ponies have. He'll wake up when the excess extrakinetic charge wears off." She looked through the window. "I'm more worried about Dragon, as far as I can tell, he doesn't have the same defense mechanism. And on top of that, his body is still adjusting to the presence of magic." She sighed. "It's probably a good thing that this happened early, while his body is adjusting, but we can't be sure."
"And it's all my fault."
Twilight put a hoof on her friend's shoulder in an unsuccessful attempt to comfort her. "Rainbow, I heard what happened, and I can assure you, no one thinks that."
Rainbow let her head fall forward to the glass in front of her. "They should." She turned and started walking away.
"And where d'ya think yer goin'?"
"Granny." Rainbow turned to face the newest addition to the hallway. "I'm sorry, I never meant for-"
"Shut yer trap, little missy." The pale green apple matriarch walked over to Rainbow and delivered a solid whack to her head. "That colt protected ya, didn't he? Then what happened was his own choice. Now think about how he's gonna feel if he wakes up and yer not there."
"But, Granny-"
Rainbow's objections were silenced by another whack to the head. "The only but 'round these parts betta be yers walkin' inta that room with a git well soon card." Granny stormed off with one final statement. "Ya've got five minutes ta get one."
Five minutes later found Rainbow in the room at Mac's bedside. She had been unable to find a card, but walking back to the hospital, she found something that would do the job just as well, a vibrant, rainbow-hued assortment of flowers. The florist was even able to find a light blue vase to put them in. Rainbow made sure to set them up so that Mac would be able to see them should he wake up after visiting hours ended.
"I'm sorry," Rainbow said to the sleeping workhorse, taking a seat by his side, "I was going to leave, Mac. I didn't stop to think about how you felt and I was just going to leave." She laid her head down on his chest, listening to the steady rise and fall of his breath. "I thought you would be upset. Actually, I thought you should be upset. Granny beat some sense into me though. I thought about what she said and I've decided that I'm going to wait until you can tell me yourself. And I want you to know that I'm going to wait right here until they kick me out." She sighed. "I know you can't hear me, buI also want you to know, that you don't have to wait the year. Whenever you ask me, the answer's yes."
Rainbow suddenly felt a weight on the back of her neck.
"Ah'll keep that in mind."