“It was you, from the moment you came here. I chose you! You big dummy!”
“I love you, you damned fast Pegasus!”
“... I love you too...Tom”
Such amazing words, spoken on that night with the one I love with all my heart. Months and months of sheepish hesitance, the whole mix up with Soarin’. It had all happened too fast, and yet it had ended with the kind of climax you’d expect in a particularly sappy Daring Doo book. That night on picnic hill was the happiest I had ever been, and I brought the memory to my mind now eleven months later. I needed its joy, its sheer power over me. I needed it more than ever as my loved one lay dying before me.
Tom lay in the bed before me, his body frail and weak after the accident. He was hardly moving, and when he did the pain showed on his face. His breath grew deeper and deeper each time, trying to take as much life from it as possible. Trying to stay here a little longer. A doctor came into the room, and beckoned me over. He didn’t look good. I turned back to Tom and leant over his head, Kissed his nose gently. “I’ll be right back ok?” He closed his eyes briefly and nodded slightly, so I moved away and approached the doctor close to the door.
“I’m sorry Rainbow... but, you see his lungs are both punctured and he’s losing far too much blood before we can fix the wounds.” He looked down to the ground almost ashamed at his lack of ability to help. I stood there, stunned at what I was hearing.
“Y-y.....you mean... he’s.....” I couldn’t bring myself to say the words.
“Yes, I’m so sorry. He has possibly three hours at most. But he will most likely lose consciousness within two.” I felt my eyes brim with tears at that. The doctor gave a consoling look then turned away to attend to his other patients.
I needed my friends, HE needed his friends. Would they be here in time? I came back to the bed, and sat in the terribly uncomfortable seat next to Tom’s head. I reached over and stroked his right hand. His cutiemark stood boldly against his pale flesh, the car wheel travelling with a fire trail behind it set against a rainbow. It was the most intricate mark I had ever seen, even more so than Princess Celestia’s.
His fingers twitched, he began to stir from his rest. He opened his eyes and looked up at me. He looked at the cuts, the bruises and the clumped fur that all riddled my body. He moved his hand towards me, and simply ran his fingers through my soft undercoat between my forelegs. His fingers were so warm. He began to speak, with severe difficulty.
“What...h-happened?” he looked concerned for my well being, but I waved away his concerns.
“I’m fine, we were in an accident. You lost control of the car in the fog... and, well. You got banged up pretty bad.” I forced my voice to stay strong; I didn’t want him to know what was coming. I wouldn’t want to know, and I knew him, he was like me in so many ways and this would be one of those ways.
He could tell something was wrong, he always could tell when I was hiding something. Was I that bad with secrets? Or did he simply know me far too well? He must have seen the truth in my eyes, because he sighed and looked up at the ceiling of the clinically white hospital room. “I-I’ve never lost control of her... not since...” He looked down to his marked hand. “I couldn’t have... that’s my talent. What makes me unique here, just like the rest of you... something else was there... there...must have been.” I quaked with worry at his pained babbling. Where were the others! They must know by now! “Wait... were you in the car with me!” he began to sit up with worry as he registered the marks over my coat and skin. He screamed. Clutching his sides with both hands he immediately retreated back to the folds of his bed.
Though he wasn’t able to get close enough to examine me, he tightened his grip on my foreleg terrified that I was hurt. “I said I was fine dumby.” I nudged him slightly smiling at him trying to calm his nerves while mine sky rocketed. How long had it been since the doctor had come in? I looked to the clock, AN HOUR AND TEN MINUTES! What?! How was it possible that the time had gone so fast. Maybe it was my imagination, but Tom seemed to be getting paler. And as he held my leg, his grip began to slacken. He was getting weaker. Two hours of being awake, and one of sleep before he left me forever.
NO! Tom had gone through hell and back just to be with me, after everything I put him through instead of being honest to begin with, he had still succeeded in winning my heart. (Though he always had it in my mind, sappy I know but he is the man I love!) If he had fought through that, and car crashes, near hypothermia and working to the point of near death on the farm, then who was to say he wouldn’t fight this? But as the minutes passed Tom grew quieter. It was almost as though he knew what was going to happen to him and was preparing himself for it. At nearly 2 hours and ten minutes, he began to drift away. His gaze became less focused, and his eyes began to droop.
But before he left, he looked one last time at my face. I dropped close to him, and without a word he kissed me. It was both wonderful and terrible simultaneously; his kiss was as they had always been, if not even more loving than usual. But his lips were also cold, and the realisation that this was his n way of saying goodbye to me made my whole world crumble beneath my hooves. He slipped into what seemed like a deep sleep, but I knew was simply a last stand as his body began to give out.
I held onto his hand, listening to the ‘beep, beep, beep’ of his pulse monitor. Tears were falling down from my eyes and onto his closed lids. It was forty-five minutes until the three hours were up. ‘beep, beep, beep.’ I tucked him in slightly, trying to make him more comfortable, as though it could make some difference. Nurses and doctors kept stopping, asking if I needed anything. Well that was obvious! I NEEDED TOM! And here he was slowly slipping away and leaving me here. So then I simply wanted to be alone with him. Thirty minutes left, ‘beep, beep, beep.’ I wipe away the stupid tears that I spilt on his face. Fifteen minutes remaining, ‘beep, beep, beep’ where was the time going? Celestia damn it I needed to do something to help! But how, what could I do? I stood up to move, but simply stayed where I stood looking lost and hopeless. Another ten minutes passed and I dreaded what the next five might bring, he had lasted nearly to the very end of what the doctor told me he would live for. He would always try and do that, keep pushing the envelope to the very edge, he had always done with his driving, and with his ways in showing me he loved me.
I heard raised voices behind me, fast approaching down the hall. “Ah don’ care if visitin’ hours are over he’s our friend and we’re seeing him!” Applejack? And other hoofsteps, how many? ‘beep..beep..beep’ was that pinkie pie she could her muttering too herself as the voices reached the closed door of the room. ‘Beep...beep...beep.’ I turned to see the door begin to open, ‘beep...beep......beep’ Twilight was leading the group, as all the gang walked into the quiet room. Twilight began to speak,
“Rainbow, are you alri”- ‘booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooop’ the noise made my whole world fall into nothing. I turned back horrified, and saw his face. Frozen, pale and expressionless. The other’s stood there dumbstruck at how they had only just entered, and had seen their friend pass away right before their eyes.
“TOM!” I screamed with all my heart. I reached across his chest and lay across him, crying my eyes out as I realised I couldn’t hear his heart beating anymore. “No, no, nononononooooooo!” I sat there for a long time just crying, and screaming his name. Eventually my voice grew tired and I was unable to scream anymore. So I just sobbed on his cold chest. In the newfound silence I heard sniffs and tears from behind me. I looked at my friends, at HIS friends. All of whom were stood by the door, obviously terrified to come any closer. This wasn’t right, they needed to have at least said goodbye to him! If only they had gotten here a little sooner, during those long three hours of waiting. I rushed over to Fluttershy, who immediately flung out her forelegs and accepted me without question. I embraced her tightly, burying my face into the fur of her shoulder and wept yet again. She stroked my mane, trying to find the words to say that would make it all better, but like me she couldn’t think of any. “Shhhhhhhh. Shh. Shh, shhhh.” She whispered soothingly and I hung in her embrace sobbing helplessly.
I heard movement as I cried, the girls had moved to the side of Tom’s bed. Fluttershy half carried me over to the chair and set me down on it. In my distraught state I slid straight off and rested my head on the seat, the tears still hadn’t stopped. I looked around through the haze of blurred tears, Twilight stood by his cutiemark. She had her right hoof resting over it, then I realized. She had loved him too for a long time! I wasn’t sure how she had felt towards him over the last few months, but if anyone realised the pain I felt in this room. It was her. But how could she not be crying? She looked mortified, miserable and downright distraught, and yet not a single tear dropped from her face.
Applejack had fallen onto her flanks in shock. She sat there with her mouth hanging open as she realised what she was seeing. She didn’t speak a word, but simply looked on in horror. Rarity’s eyes were running ceaselessly, she sniffed, her lip began to tremble. With a sudden burst of wailing, she turned and fell onto the small dragon beside her. Spike? When had he come in? Was her there from the start? The purple dragon was growing fast, he had been just reaching the end of his infancy when Tom had arrived in Equestria, and now he was fast approaching his adolescent stage. He would soon be as tall as the pony who now cried on his shoulder , his longer arms wrapped around her and softly stroked her mane, just like Fluttershy had been doing to me. Where was pinkie? I pulled myself away from my yellow friend to search for her. She wasn’t in the room.
A muffled sob emits from the hallway. I don’t know if I should see to my friend or stay with the body. I was torn desperately between the living and the dead, I needed to feel someone close to me. I didn’t want anypony to be alone now that this had happened. Nopony protested to my leaving through the door that hung slightly agape. I curled my head around the frame of the door, and there pinkie sat. Her hair the straightest it had ever been. She was slumped against the wall, her hooves over her eyes as she sobbed quietly into them. I didn’t say anything, I only walked to her, sat down next to her, and threw my Forelegs around her head.
“Oh... Dashie!” Her sobs exploded into wailing as she hugged me tightly, her face buried in my chest. I burrowed my face into her soft hair, and together we both cried for what seemed, and was most likely hours.