As Twilight lugged her unconscious friend to Canterlot High, she wondered what had just happened. She had been teleported from Largest Ever Pet Shop to the mystical place where Celestia had made her an alicorn, and Rainbow had been given unthinkable power in her Element just by uniting with her human counterpart. Twilight wondered if O'Brian would cause more trouble, now that he knew where Equestria was located. Would he kidnap more ponies? What if her friends were threatened by him? She couldn't bear the thought of losing AppleJack, or Rarity, or Pinkie...
Twilight could barely see the pedestal of a giant statue of a pony that signified the gateway back to Equestria in the darkness. She felt the cold stone with her hand, but the portal held.
The Equestrian gently put down Rainbow Dash and concentrated on the pedestal. Open, she thought. A magenta beam of light pierced the gloom, landing on the stone horse's forehead. Its eyes lit up, and Twilight stepped through, bringing the cyan pegasus with her.
* * *
"TWILIGHT!!!" cried a familiar voice as she stepped through. She was still standing on her hind legs, holding Rainbow in her front.
She almost let her friend go as she dropped down to four legs, but Shining Armor caught her with his magic just in time, carefully setting her down in the corner to rest.
"Ya' did it!" cried AppleJack. "We've been so worried!"
"Oh, Twilight, darling! You got Rainbow back!" Rarity threw her legs around Twilight, then sighted her cut on her foreleg.
"You're hurt," said Cadence, wrapping a bandage around the scrape.
"Forget about me," she protested. "Help Rainbow!"
"I'm on it!" saluted Pinkie Pie, then ran off to get Nurse RedHeart from Ponyville. Cadence did what she could, but it still wasn't enough. They needed an expert.
"I-is there anything I can do? If it's okay with you, of course," added Fluttershy in her shy little voice.
"I'm here! Everypony out of the way!" Nurse RedHeart shouted.
"She's over there," Twilight pointed.
Nurse RedHeart examined Rainbow, then said to Twilight, "She needs to get to the hospital immediately!"
"Somepony call an ambulance!" shouted Pinkie.
"Twilight accompanied her friend the entire way back to Ponyville, and into the hospital. She stood outside of the door as the doctors worked, and came to see her everyday afterword to see if she was awake. Every time, she was still out cold.
"Oh, Twilight," said Fluttershy the last time she walked into Rainbow's room. "She's not going to wake up anytime soon!"
"Yes, she will!" Twilight snapped, and scared the poor pony away by her rudeness. "Oh, Fluttershy, I'm sorry. I'm just stressed, that's all."
"It's okay, Twilight," Fluttershy replied, though her voice was still very small.
Twilight could not rest, not when Rainbow could be in trouble. She spent all night pacing until she wore open that old groove in the floor. She spent all day at her hospital bed, waiting for her to wake up. But it was all in vain.
"Twilight, ya' have ta' get some rest," AppleJack argued whenever she caught Twilight staring at Rainbow. "Ya'll are sleepin' on your hooves!"
"I'm fine," yawned Twilight, but every day she got more and more tired, until she stopped working all together.
"Okay, Fluttershy," whispered Rarity one morning. Twilight was in bed, staring at the wall, worried. "You grab her and hold her down, while we tie her down. You got that?"
"An' don' ask permission firs'! Jus' do it!" hissed AppleJack. Fluttershy nodded. She crept up behind Twilight and lifted her hooves. She hesitated for a second, but then brought them down on Twilight's chest.
The meadow-yellow pegasus cried as Twilight struggled, but didn't let up. Soon the alicorn was tied to her bed, with the other ponies grinning smugly about it.
"Twilight, we are not going to let you go until you get some rest," Rarity lectured. "Rainbow will wake up in her own time, and you cannot and will not kill yourself fretting over nothing."
"I'm sorry, Twilight," whispered Fluttershy.
Twilight stopped struggling and gave her friends one last puppy dog look before sighing.
"All right. I'll sleep," she said, and in ten seconds flat she was snoring.
"Good work girls," Rarity whispered, and together they sneaked out to check up on Rainbow Dash.