//------------------------------// // Chapter 75: Wounds // Story: The First Steps of the Rest of Your Life // by Rhino //------------------------------// ***Sunday, Day 98*** **Late Evening** “Sir, I really don’t think you should get out of bed. Your leg-” I cut off the mare, my patience very much strained from today’s events. “Nurse, my leg was dragged through the Everfree without any sort of medical attention. I’m sure it can survive moving from this room to a chair down the hall, especially bandaged up as it is. I have more important things to be ready for.” I make my way down the hall, the tell-tale ‘clop, clop, clop, thunk’ pattern of my steps already annoying me. I’ve been in hospitals before, but I’ve been totally comfortable in them. Perhaps it’s an acquired taste, but the identical halls, mostly white walls, and just overall atmosphere of them tend to make me feel either numb or stir-crazy. Currently, I’m on the latter side of that coin. One never gets quite used to the smell of a hospital either, some say it smells like antiseptic, but to me it doesn’t smell at all, which is perhaps more disturbing. Anywhere else you might smell the wind through a window, the smell of food, paper, varying perfumes and colognes, but here... there’s nothing. After what is to me, an unacceptably long amount of time for the distance it was, I reach one of the chairs and plop down tiredly. After a moment, the sound of running hooves reaches my ears. “Dad!” I turn and see a familiar pink filly, followed by a canary-yellow mare close behind. “What happened? Aren’t you hurting right now?” She looks at my leg, a concerned expression on her face. I try to stand up to talk to them, but Fluttershy stops me with a hoof to my chest as she pushes me firmly back down into the chair. She looks at me with that maternal stare as she asks, “Should you even be walking around right now?” I don’t meet her eyes. “Technically no...” she opens her mouth to speak but I quickly cut her off, “I was careful getting down here and they gave me enough pain medicine for me to be okay for a while... I’m fine, really!” I wiggle my light green cast-covered limb and grit my teeth as I force a smile. Pinchy frowns, a bemused look on her face. “You aren’t fooling anyone, Dad.” Her frown softens, and she moves closer, gently nuzzling my cheek. “We just want you to get better.” She turns to Fluttershy, smiling softly. “Right, Mom?” The pegasus nods. “Right. Umm, how bad is it anyway?” I tap my cast idly as I look around the hallway empty of other ponies. “Just a small fracture, I should be able to take this off in about a week and a half. I guess I lucked out to only get this... even if my nurse is a bit more restricting than the cast at times.” The filly gently taps my cast, curious. “How did you even break it? And are the others as hurt as bad as you are?” I nod down the hall. “Rarity’s just getting a final checkup. I don’t think they’ve found anything more than scrapes and bruises on her, though she did get to shelter quickly so that’s to be expected. Hydro...” my voice goes quiet. Fluttershy puts her hoof on my shoulder. “Rhino... what about him?” Not answering, I simply look further down the hall I had come to. Their eyes follow mine, coming to rest on a single set of double doors with a large red light lit above them. My marefriend gasps as she covers her mouth with her hooves, her eyes shimmering on the brim of tears. Pinchy has a somber expression, unable to look away from the door. I nod quietly. “He was in pretty bad shape...” I hear another set of hoofsteps, but pay them no mind. “We found him, after the mountain collapsed... He was unconscious, and he had lost a lot of blood... We had to dig him out of the rocks. Rarity had some cloth in her bags, we used it to bandage him up to hold him together... Really had to wrap some parts...” I break away from my memory trip to see Applejack a short distance away, listening intently with fear in her eyes. She silently motions for me to continue. I pick up where I left off. “Orion took the shard, Atom landed to help me carry Hydro. We tried to move as fast as we could, but we had to be careful with him... Blue flew ahead... made sure there was an ambulance wagon waiting outside the forest... Rainbow flew off when we got in... We were separated when we got here, but managed to get the information from my nurse that Rarity was fine and Hydro was...” I look back at the doors, “Undetermined.” Applejack lets out a shuddering gasp as Fluttershy quickly flies over to comfort her, leaving Pinchy with me. I sigh as I lean back at stare at the ceiling. “Why?” I look at the filly’s word, surprised at seeing her visibly tremble. “...why must the ones I care about get hurt?” I lean forward as I reach out to her. “Pinchy?” She turns to me, tears in her eyes. “...first mom...then dad...and now Uncle Hydro...” She sniffles, rubbing her snout with a foreleg. “...I-I don’t want to lose somepony else...” My ears fold back as I pick up the filly and hold her close. “Hey now, Hydro’s a tough pony... It’s not gonna be easy, but I think he’ll pull through.” I gently wipe her tears. “We just have to be positive, okay?” I turn an eye to Applejack, who seems better, but still looks very shaky. “Not just for Hydro, but for Applejack.” She silently nods, looking at the cowpony as well. “...I-I guess you’re right...” She glances back at the door, concern flashing across her face. “...h-he’ll get better...h-he has to...” I stroke her mane as we look at the door. “That’s my girl... How did you and Fluttershy know to find us here anyway?” “...well...” She looks up at me briefly. “...the Crusaders and I were at Mom’s house...and I overheard Rainbow telling her about what happened...” She sheepishly smiles, shrugging a bit. “...I ran to get here as soon as possible, and Mom followed after she sent the others to Apple Bloom’s house...” I look back to the farm pony. “I guess either Rainbow told the Apples or the Crusaders did...” The red light is still bright. “Hmm, well, to keep our minds off bad things, how about we think about what we can do to help Hydro? Maybe you and your classmates can make get well cards or something?” “We can do that.” Pinchy nods, smiling brightly. It seems as though she is getting back to her usual happy self. Suddenly, the light over the door flicks off and a unicorn stallion comes out as he is removing his surgical mask. He sees us all waiting and motions us to one side of the hall. Applejack immediately confronts him, looking like she is halfway between crying and breaking something. “Well, how is he? Is he alright?” The stallion backs up as he answers. “He’s stable, we’ve moved him to Room 117. You can visit him if you like.” The farmpony gallops off as fast as her legs could carry her, leaving the rest of us. I turn to the doctor, my voice serious. “How bad was it?” His eyes meet mine. “You’re the doctor that came in with him?” I nod. “Then you know how close he was when we got him. I admit, it was touch and go for a while, but we did everything we could... given what we had to work with.” My voice is raspy as I ask the next question. “And what about his...” My voice trails off. He shakes his head. “Like I said, we did everything we could.” Pinchy looks between us, confused. “...his...what? What are you talking about, Dad?” I cringe. “Well, most of the damage was isolated to a specific area... It might just be best for you to see for yourself...” The surgeon turns to leave. “As I said before, his room is 117. The anesthetic should be wearing off soon, so he might even wake up while you are there.” We nod and quickly head to the designated room. When we open the door, we find the orange mare, her hat on the bedpost, with her hooves holding Hydro’s right one even as small sniffs can be heard coming from her. Fluttershy goes to stand next to Applejack, a small gasp confirming what I had feared as Pinchy and I walk around the other side of the bed. Where his left foreleg would normally be, Hydro’s now stops at the shoulder. A swathe of bandages wraps the area, a small bit of blood on them. I look down to see how Pinchy is taking it, but she seems to be stunned more than anything else. A groan comes from the red figure on the bed as his eyes crack open. “Ugh... what? Where am I?” Applejack smiles as she quietly answers. “Yer in the hospital. Try not ta move too much.” Hydro groans again. “Hospital... why... why am I...” I answer the unfinished question. “We had a mountain collapse on us, you got hit the worst.” He looks at me. “Don’t see where you got hit.” I lift up my bad leg. “Just a crack, nothing too bad. How are you feeling?” He rolls his eyes around a bit before shutting them. “Confused... groggy... can’t feel my left foreleg for some reason...” The room goes silent at this statement. He notices. “Hey, what’s with the quiet?” He sees Pinchy on my back. “Especially from you Ruby, usually you at least have something to say.” She sheepishly smiles, rubbing the back of her neck. “...nothing I can say will diffuse the tension...sorry, Uncle Hydro...” He shifts in the bed. "Why would there be tension-" He freezes. I can see the muscles in the shoulder working to move the mass that is no longer there. He looks down at where his limb should be. "What..." I put my hoof on his shoulder. "I'm sorry bro, it's gone..." He still stares at the empty space. "How..." I explain as gently as I can. "During the collapse, it was crushed flat between two boulders... The damage was immeasurable... They couldn't save it..." Hydro collapses backwards onto the bed, a stunned look on his face. I see Applejack’s hoof tighten around his remaining one as Fluttershy turns away. He speaks after a moment. “I... this is a lot to take in...” I nod understandingly. “I know dude... I know... Sleep on it... we’ll help you get through this.” I offer my hoof to him and he manages a smiles as he frees his hoof from the farmpony long enough to brohoof me. Pinchy pops up next to Applejack, a small box wrapped with gear-patterned paper in her hooves. “...I know that this might not help that much, Uncle Hydro...but hopefully, it’ll help you feel better!” She carefully puts the present down on the bed, smiling kindly at him. He gingerly picks up the box and holds it as he opens it with his teeth. Once he removes the wrapping paper and opens the box itself, he lifts out a snowglobe. Not just any snowglobe though, this one has a water wheel in it almost exactly the same as his cutie mark. He smiles as he shakes it once before setting on the bedside table and turning back to the filly. “Now, who told you that I collect snowglobes?” She smiles, looking up at me. “Dad did. This is from the both of us.” Hydro looks up at me. “You remembered my birthday? Even with all this?” I smile at him. “I know it’s not for another few days, but I think this is a good time for you to have it.” He yawns as he pats Pinchy’s head. “Thanks, Ruby...” She giggles. “It’s my pleasure! You look like you need some rest, though.” She turns to me, almost as if asking for confirmation. I nod as I pick her up and set her on my back. “We’ll let you rest, I’ve got to go debate with the nurse that I’m well enough to go home.” Fluttershy sighs and shakes her head at me before she leads the way out of the room. “Wait...” I turn back at Hydro’s voice as Applejack speaks. “Don’t worry sugarcube, Ah’ll be stayin here with ya.” He looks to her. “I appreciate that, but I need to ask Rhino one last thing.” He turns to me, his face serious. “What happened to the purple one?” I word my answer carefully, given our company. “Merely a smudge in a crater now.” He nods. “Good.”