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// Awake At Last 
// Story: Remember The Spectrum 
// by Eclipse 
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Rainbow Dash awoke with a faint ringing in her right ear, she was disoriented; her vision obstructed by loose bandaging covering softly over her dreary eyes. The ringing became more and more distinct as she came to; her body got a sudden jolt of pain as she shifted her position to see the extent of her situation. But the bandages just wouldn't move, she was helpless and most of all in immense pain, the pain coursing through her body, shooting from her limbs right up to the base of her sore skull. Her neck was creaked; she was unable to move her neck, the stiffness of her muscles made it hard to move any of her limbs for that matter. Her eyes scanned the small room to the best of her abilities, from what she could see, she was in someplace bright; a fierce unforgiving fluorescent bulb shone into her eyes which feel like they'd been shut for years now. As she blinked a film of crust had fallen from her eyes, her vision was groggy, her mind was disoriented; she had no idea what was going on, and for that matter, where she was. The only distinct thing that she could tell was the faint beeping, and a white, expressionless wall on the adjacent side of the room, staring back at her with no emotions whatsoever.

Finally her mind cleared and she realized the full extent of the situation, her friends, and the forest, she remembered it all, and she'd remember it the rest of her life, which she felt wouldn’t be very long anyways. She heard a door open, and a nurse came in and noticed her eyes were open slightly; she was taken aback, jolting backwards away from the cyan pegasus as she turned flank, leaving receding hoofsteps out of the room, to echo in Rainbow Dash’s still adjusting ears as she ran frantically out. Moments later more came in, with a pair of scissors, and proceeded to cut the bandages off layer by layer; she could feel the cool air now penetrating the gauze bandages, though she felt immense pain as the gauze peeled away from her skin, the cool air calmed her as she hadn't felt the sensation for what felt like a long time. The bandages came off one by one, each peeling off a layer of dead skin and blood that looked as dry as the hot summer breeze. Once the bandages were off, they pulled on the tube that was inserted into her trachea until it came all the way out with a wet sound of her throat readjusting from the tube being shoved down it, and suddenly pulled out.

Rainbow Dash coughed violently, her head feeling a pain beyond her comprehension an unexplainable type of anguishing, disorienting pain, the pain still coursing through her face, she felt that the air was really comforting; since she hadn’t felt the cool embrace of the air. Though she could now see, her vision was slightly blurry, however long she'd been out it definitely took a toll on the pegasus' eyes, leaving a thick film of dried tears, on the sides of her eyes. She blinked a couple of times, searching around the room for a familiar face, she found none, her friends were not there to see her, no pony there to comfort her and tell her she was okay. But she didn't care right now, the great thing is she was alive and still breathing; though her breaths were short and raspy, and her whole body was covered in casts, medical tape and gauze. Whatever the hell she'd gone through, it really took quite the toll on her physical appearance; which she didn't really care about anyways, for the most part, she only cared about her wings, which were sadly destroyed also, hanging in a cast of their own. She found herself unable to talk at the moment, as if her mind had forgotten how to mold sentences and process words, no matter how much she tried to speak, the words eluded her.

The doctor pony looked at her only in dismay, smiling lightly after examining her eyes; she was okay, at least for the moment that is. "How are you feeling, Ms. Rainbow. Is there any pain you are experiencing? If so where, feel free to speak up now." The doctors looked ominously back at her, awaiting an answer; but whenever she tried to speak, the words would not form. It was like the wording she tried to put forth rejected her so, causing her to just let out a slight groan each time she tried to speak. The doctors frowned, "Don't worry Rainbow Dash; it's just an effect of the tube being inside your bronchial tubes. You should regain speech function relatively soon. Your brain doesn't seem to be affected too severely, but there was some bleeding we had to stop beforehand. You're lucky to be waking up right now Ms. Dash, you can call the nurses by pressing that button next to you; they'll help with whatever you require." Rainbow Dash gave a nod of recognition, and the doctors gave a content smile and left the room. Rainbow Dash lowered her head in defeat, knowing she couldn’t communicate or even see very well at the moment.

Rainbow Dash was the fastest and most resilient filly flyer in all of Equestria! How could she be under so much pain; well no matter what any pony thought, she was still just a pegasus. She felt pain and feelings all the same as any pony else in all of Equestria; but yet she still found herself saddened at the mass amounts of pain her body was succumbing to, making her cringe in the sudden jolts of pain that shot up her spine. But the only thing on her mind was her friends, she couldn't stop having her mind run a million situations that could've panned out; she tried to keep the thoughts from her head, but they kept flowing in, no matter how hard she tried they were there to stay. She sighed having had the thoughts invading her still groggy mind ever since she woke up from her coma, but she couldn’t seem to tell how long she’d been in that coma, she wanted to ask, but her voice didn’t seem to want to cooperate with her just yet. She sighed, letting out a deep breath as the whole room seemed to close in on her; the room seemed to be closing around her, choking her out of the very breathing habits she’d just now gotten control of. She knew it was all in her mind, but she couldn’t help but feel it was all so real, and just believe that what happened to her friends, and her, was the true dream.

The film over her eyes finally started to dissipate, she could see more clearly, only to see a bouquet of flowers, along with a large bouquet of balloons that practically spelled out Pinkie’s name, nonetheless it brought a smile across her face knowing that her friends were coming to visit her while she was still in the coma. But she wondered just how long it had been since they’d been there, the flowers were dying, the balloons were nearly completely deflated, barely hanging themselves in the air, some actually touching the ground, and there was a card that laid next to her on a small nightstand with a layer of dust on it. Rainbow Dash struggled to move all of her limbs, stretching her right foreleg to the small card trying to pick it up, she fumbled around with it before finally getting it up into her hooves and started reading it, her eyes watering as she spotted the tear stains upon the card. Pinkie’s writing was squiggly and frantically written, obviously written whenever Pinkie was crying, and this revelation made Rainbow Dash cry on the inside, and the outside. Even the very words on the paper were enough to make her cry, and she was one of the most resilient mares when it all came down to crying, she was always good at hiding her emotions from all of the others, but this card was just too much for even her to handle.

The front of the card said, ‘Wake Up Soon,’ with a drawing of all the other of her friends on it, all except Fluttershy that was, she was with Rainbow Dash on that day, and was most likely in one of the rooms in the hospital as well. As Rainbow Dash read her heart broke, not just broke, shattered; leaving her to wallow in her guilt, the card addressed the whole line of her friendship with Pinkie, and it was written in such a way that suggested that Pinkie was writing not because she felt like she had to, but because Rainbow was a true friend, and that she was in dire need of a friend. Rainbow Dash coughed again violently, coughing up what seemed to be a mix of dried saliva, phlegm, and blood, both fresh and congealed. Rainbow Dash started to re-read the card, just because she loved the little pink mare to death, and this was the only thing that would make her believe that Pinkie Pie was in the very same room with her, even when she wasn’t. 

’Dearest Rainbow Dash, you’ve been in a coma for almost four months now, all of us in Ponyville miss you, the weather these other pegasi make just isn’t as good as you and your ‘Ten seconds flat,’ method, no pony else can fill the void that you, getting hurt, has left. All of us are falling apart, no pony is the same anymore, Rarity hasn’t made a dress since you got hurt, Twilight hasn’t written a single letter to the princess, I haven’t made cupcakes, cakes, or anything, and Applejack hasn’t been bucking apples. We all hold a single day, a single day out of every week to take the time and remember the way things used to be. How we were when you and Fluttershy were around and we would all have our little adventures around Ponyville and into the Everfree Forest and other places I still think are pretty scary. But we all hope that you and Fluttershy will be okay, you two seem peaceful, like you’re both just dreaming, asleep, gracefully waiting for the next day to come to where you can open your eyes and embrace an all new day. But we all know better than that, we know that the extent of your injuries is to the point to where the rate of you actually pulling through and making even the slightest bit of a recovery, is close to none. Please, for all of your friends, for me, you have to pull through...
Your bestest friend, Pinkamena Diane Pie.’

Every time Rainbow Dash read the card, she would let out streams of tears, knowing that not only were her friends worrying about her, but they were already mourning over her. This revelation brought Rainbow Dash unto the point of a complete emotional breakdown, which would spiral her to cry for hours, and never stop, not as long as she was still causing her friends pain. Her injuries had put all of her usually happy friends into a spiraling deep, depression, and that was one of the things that she’d never wish upon any pony. She knew how her friends felt, they were visiting her every day, and they were seeing her slip more and more from the world, and she knew it. Rainbow Dash felt that Death had a tight grasp on her, holding a gun right to the side of her head, and he was just waiting for the moment to pull the trigger and end her life, that would make her friends fall into an even deeper depression than before, no matter what she would do, her and her friends’ relationship would never be the same again, and she knew this for a fact.

Rainbow Dash just sighed and looked up at the ceiling, she felt helpless, and she knew that even her friends couldn’t help her shake this feeling off of her, a constant funk hung over her head, knowing that it was all her fault that all of her friends were hurting, either that be emotionally, or maybe even physically. She couldn’t do much to ease her friends’ discomfort either, no matter what she thought of, it would never make them forget about this day, or even this experience. Rainbow Dash just hung her head low and yawned, hoping that maybe what the next day brought would be better than how this entire day had planned out. Rainbow Dash laid her head down, holding Pinkie’s heartfelt card to her chest, and falling into a deep sleep…