The lights in the hospital left nothing hidden; every surface shined under the white fluorescents. The waiting room left a lot to be desired, but no one noticed. They were all too anxious for news to care that their chairs were hard plastic, or that they hadn’t eaten in nearly a day. The bustling of nurses and doctors rushing back and forth could be heard through the doors, if anyone had been listening.
The silent grimaces on the group’s faces spoke to their concerns. Even Icescape, who barely new Rainbow Dash, and didn’t particularly like her, was frowning, with his eyes narrowed, ears flat against his head. The surgeon had said he’d be back in half an hour, unless something went wrong. It had been almost four hours.
The ward doors opened up right at the four hours mark, letting a doctor in surgery scrubs enter. He looked exhausted, and he still had a little blood on him. “I’m sorry it’s been so much longer than I said,” The surgeon started, sitting down with a sigh. “Another patient came in and needed immediate attention. Anyways, your friend is still asleep, but I expect her to awake within the hour. She will be out of it; we have her on a large number of pain meds. We got all the major surgery done, but there are still some smaller, less important things to take care of. When she wakes up, I’ll have a nurse come get you.” With his speech finished, the surgeon stood back up and departed back through the ward doors.
A noticeable sigh echoed from around the room. Pinkie Pie popped out of her chair, rushing away while shouting about a get well party. “She can’t be stopped, can she?” Twilight’s voice was raw, but a crooked grin slowly grew on her face.
“That pony’s a disaster waitin’ to happen,” Applejacks voice wasn’t quite as raw as Twilight’s, but it still hadn’t gone unchanged. “I think we should stop her ‘fore she gives Rainbow a heart attack.”
“Too late now, darling,” Rarity said, somehow maintaining composure, despite having cried almost as much as Fluttershy, “If we want to stop her, it will have to be at the last second.”
Midnight gave a nod to this, wondering if Rainbow would remember her near death experience. He hoped not, it would result in too many impossible questions for him. Personally, he wouldn’t have done that… or at least he thought that he wouldn’t. Though, it was himself who showed her all those visions in the first place, so who knew what he would do if he hadn’t been split like that. Questions for another time, he thought to himself, I’ve got other things to worry about right now.
Rainbow lifted her head slowly. She thought it must be daytime, but her room had no windows, so it was impossible to tell. Without any idea where she was, she tried to get out of bed. This led to the revelation that she was having trouble moving her limbs. Must still be tired, she thought, groggily, I’ll just give it a few minutes. In the middle of this thought, she realized she wasn’t in her hotel room. This room was too clean; the white walls, fresh bed sheets, and the rack full of bags holding strange liquids right next to her were all out of place.
It took her a little while longer before she reached the conclusion that she must be in a hospital of some kind. She really couldn’t figure out why she was there, last she remembered, she had been guiding Midnight through the streets of some residential district. Then Gilda had come out of nowhere, and… oh, right, she thought. Gilda attacked me. I’m surprised I don’t hurt, she continued, must be on a lot of something.
This line of thought took Rainbow a little longer than she usually wanted to spend thinking about anything. Of course, she didn’t really mind, just as she didn’t mind anything else. Even a Pinkie Pie surprise party wouldn’t affect her at this point. This was probably a good thing, because this was exactly what Pinkie had planned. As her friends walked into the room, Rainbow got a face full of confetti at the very moment a giant banner reading “Get Well Soon, Rainbow Dash!” unfurled in her room.
“Pinkie!” Twilight shouted, shaking her head. “Was that really necessary?”
“Yep!” The pink blur said as it made its way to crush Rainbow Dash in a hug. Pinkie never made it, her tail having been grabbed by Applejack. As Pinkie crashed to the ground, Midnight gave a small, inaudible chuckle. He took a seat just inside the door, waiting for the girls to finish fawning over Rainbow. He was just glad she survived.
An hour later, the group had been kicked out of the hospital. They stood around in a huddle, not knowing where to go. None of them had to report for duty until tomorrow at the earliest, and their Manehattan suite had been destroyed in the fighting. Pinkie hopped off to an unknown location, and nobody followed her. They didn’t know what she was doing, and truth be told, most of them didn’t want to.
“Well,” Twilight started, “I think I’ll go to the library. I’m going to see what I can find on magical medicine.” She executed a quick turn, heading the opposite direction of Pinkie.
“I’m going to find a new place to stay. I absolutely refuse to stay in those army barracks again!” Rarity declared, a determined grimace on her face. She too walked away.
Fluttershy had stayed behind to help keep an eye on Rainbow. Rarity had tried her best to cajole Fluttershy into leaving, but to no avail. None of the others had even bothered. For such a shy pony, Fluttershy could be very determined if she really wanted to be. Midnight shook these thoughts out of his head. After all, Fluttershy would be fine, but Applejack, Icescape and himself still had nowhere to go. And the sun was starting to go down.
“Hey, we need to find a place to say,” Midnight voiced his thoughts to his companions, “Before the sun goes down, if we can.” The other two merely nodded in agreement, even if Icescape did so very vigorously. “Well then, I vote we go find an affordable place nearby. But not a motel. Ok?” With another nod from Applejack and Icescape, the trio set off.
They arrived at an acceptable hotel about half an hour later. It was a very unremarkable place, the same brown as every other building in the area. Rooms were cheap though, and it was pretty close to the hospital. Plus, it was very clean, for someplace that seemed to be such a dump from the outside. After booking a two room suite, the trio headed upstairs. They had grabbed some food while looking, so they had no need to eat. Icescape bid Applejack and Midnight a good night, then headed to bed. He’d been the first awake, and had stayed up latest the night before. Midnight thought he was running himself ragged, and couldn’t figure out why. He forgot all his questions as Applejack led him into their room.
Rainbow had fallen asleep shortly after her friends had left. As she woke again, she found a clock she vaguely remembered asking for was on her bedside table. It read 11:24 PM. This helped compound her surprise when she looked around and saw a lavender heap lying on the ground. “Uhh, Twilight?” Rainbow asked, a small tremor in her voice, “Are you awake?”
“Huh?” Twilight said, thinking she must sound like the stupidest nerd in history. “Oh, Rainbow! I didn’t think you’d wake up.”
With Twilight’s head moved, Rainbow could see she’d started to doze over what looked to be a pony anatomy book. “Well, I’ve been sleeping all day… I couldn’t do it anymore. What’s with the book? And how’d you get in here, anyways?” All these questions suddenly started hitting Rainbow at about the same time as the pain in her chest came back. “Ahhh… hay.”
“You ok?” Twilight’s eyes narrowed as she asked. Deciding Rainbow would just lie, Twilight left the room to find Fluttershy. She returned a few minutes later, the other mare in tow. Fluttershy refilled Rainbows IV with pain medication, before stammering out some kind of apology and rushing out the door.
“Heh, good ol’ Fluttershy.” Rainbow could already feel the meds clouding her mind. She didn’t know what this stuff was, but it was without a doubt powerful, and she liked it. She tried to focus on Twilight, who was answering her questions, but only managed to catch a few broken sentences.
“I had Fluttershy… Looking for a spell… figuring out what was torn… don’t want to… it could hurt. Rainbow? Can you hear me?” But Rainbow Dash had already fallen asleep.