//------------------------------// // Reunion // Story: Awakening // by Silver Scrolls //------------------------------// One week and not a word. Doctors and nurses had been in and out, trying to get her to open up but nothing. Rainbow sighed and let her head drop as she rubbed her forehead with hoof. She had tried staying in the room but Twilight had made it quite clear she wanted to be alone, and it only took two vases for Rainbow to get the hint. Maybe she should have been honest from the beginning, instead of trying to hide the truth. With a sigh Rainbow slide to the floor and covered her eyes with her hooves. To top it all of Twilight’s parents were due in and she had a feeling it wouldn't be a very pretty sight if Twilight’s father showed up as well. Rainbow’s ear twitched backwards and swiveled. Picking her head up slowly she placed an ear on the door and held her breath. The first signs of life came muffled through the door. The sound of a sad tune being hummed tickled her ear gently through the door. As words replaced the humming, blue lips slowly curled into a small smile. You are my sunshine, my only sunshine You make me happy when skies are gray You'll never know dear, how much I love you Please don't take my sunshine away. The other night dear, as I lay sleeping I dreamed I held you in my arms But when I awoke, dear, I was mistaken So I hung my head and I cried. Rainbow held her breath and crouched down, using a hoof to pull the handle down as she lowered. Nosing open the door she slowly moved into the room, letting the door slide down her back leg and close with a barely audible click behind her. She paused for moment, ears pivoted forward and eyes closed. Slowly she exhaled and cracked an eye open. Twilight was looking away and continued to sing. You are my sunshine, my only sunshine You make me happy when skies are gray You'll never know dear, how much I love you Please don't take my sunshine away. You are my sunshine, my only sunshine You make me happy when skies are gray You'll never know dear, how much I love you Please don't take my sunshine away. Please don't take my sunshine away. Please don't take my sunshine away. Without turning from the window, Twilight addressed Rainbow, “That first explosion, the one that knocked me out, what happened after it? I...I want to know what happened after...after everything.” Rainbow’s ears drooped and she shuffled across the floor. “Are you sure Twi?” “Rainbow I need to know. I need to know why I am still here and...” Twilight's words tapered off with a choked sob and she wrapped her hooves around herself before continuing. “And she isn’t.” A cyan hoof came to rest on Twilight’s shoulder and rubbed small circles. “It’s because she went back for you. She dragged me out and went right back in to find you.” “So it’s my fault that she’s gone. My fault that I am here now with you, alone in the world. Rainbow, can you tell me about the event after the explosion. In your own words, what happened after the accident.” Twilight turned and looked Rainbow in the eye with a pleading expression. “Please, tell me what you remember.” ~~ The day of the lab accident “Hold on Rainbow, I'll get ya out of here and go back fer Twi', just don't go passing out on meh” Applejack told Rainbow Dash as she hauled her up the stairs, through the rainbow colored smoke and towards the main floor. When she arrived at the main floor she took her bearings and headed for the front door, once out she saw most of the town gathering and screamed for someone to get the doctor. “Yer gonna be alright Rainbow, I gotta go back fer Twi' now, someone’ll be along to help in a sec.” Rainbow tried to scream at Applejack not to go back in but could only whimper, the pain along her back was to much. She watched and waited helplessly for a minute, before the library was wracked with another explosion. The side of the tree seemed to disintegrate and the tree toppled over towards the side that had blown away. ~~ Present Day “I blacked out after the tree fell, everything else I got second hoof, from the papers and gossip..” Rainbow took a deep breath before she began summarizing what she had read.“After the tree fell rescue ponies were able to get to the basement where they found Applejack lying over you, her back was burnt and she was barely conscious. From what I understand, she fought and screamed at them to take you up first. The papers said she was screaming about saving her mare, that you were more important than she was. They took you up together, I can bring you pictures of the rescue if you want.” Rainbow was a little fidgety, “After you both arrived she slipped into a coma for about a month. We had you both put in the same room, we thought it would help you both out.” Twilight sat there thoughtfully, “Does anypony know what the second explosion was? What in my lab could have killed her, I barely had enough liquid rainbow to cause the first explosion, let alone kill a pony simply from the fumes.” “Twi', the second explosion was probably from one of your other experiments. Nopony is a hundred percent sure why, but at least one, if not more, of your other projects had a violent reaction to the explosion. Between the rainbow fumes and the spell crystals we’re lucky it wasn't worse. With all that magic flying around in your lab Applejack was very lucky to survive at all. Honestly, we thought she was fine at first.” Rainbow bowed her head and wrapped her arms around herself, “All she could talk about while she was bedridden was how she didn't mind dying because she had saved the most important mares in her life.” Twilight sat with a thoughtful look on her face for a moment before turning back to the window. “That song, the one you walked into, she taught it to me.” Twilight hummed a little bit of the song with nostalgic look on her face. “Do you remember the smarty pants doll incident?” Rainbow nodded her head in confirmation. “Do you remember how I locked myself in the library for the better part of three weeks after it?” Rainbow looked up, “Kinda.” “It’s funny really when I think about it now but I digress, during that time I had only one visitor, Applejack. Spike let her in and she stayed with me the entire time. Trying to comfort me and help me come to terms with things. That was the song she would sing me to sleep with every night. Thinking back, that was probably when I first began to notice that I was falling for her.” Twilight's lips curled up in a tiny smile. “Even though I was so depressed and dejected, Applejack stayed with me and comforted me with that song. Every time my tears started she would sing that song till I stopped. She told me about how her mom taught her the song and her mom's mom taught her. She told me how she used to sing it to Apple Bloom when she would have nightmares. Even now, that song helps ease the pain.” Twilight began humming it as Rainbow Dash sat with slightly misty eyes. “Twilight,” Rainbow Dash began, “Applejack loved you to the end. I remember that first day after she woke up and how she spent it curled up next you in your bed. The doctors tried to get her away from you to check on your condition, but she was just so stubborn. In the end the just worked around her, shifting her so they could get everywhere they needed to.” Rainbow giggled a bit. “The doctors didn't have a clue what to do, they tried repeatedly to get her to a new room and they always found her back in your room. Even after she started to deteriorate she would crawl back into your room and curl up next to you.” Rainbow had a nostalgic look on her face as she reminisced. “Me, you and her, we had sleepovers all the time. Me and AJ would gather in your room and sleep by your side, man it made the doctors so nervous whenever they found us like that. I guess it’s why they were so willing to accept that she would give up her heart for you.” Rainbow slapped her hoof into her mouth suddenly. Twilight’s brow furrowed for a second. “She gave up her heart...for me. Wait, gave it up? Are you saying that I have her heart inside me? Not like figuratively but literally?” Rainbow looked away, “I wasn't supposed to tell you, but...yeah.” Twilight sat back and took a deep breath. and then another and another. “But why, when, why? Is that even legal?” Rainbow rubbed the back of her head for a few seconds, eyes darting about. “About two years after you had gone into a coma your heart started to falter. It looked pretty bad because there was no one to donate, at least until AJ stepped up. She offered hers to you since she knew she wouldn't be long for this world because everything but her heart was failing. How heart was going strong as the rest failed. She demanded they do a compatibility test, saying that she had one strong organ left and it only beat for one mare so it might as well go to mare and beat a song of life for the mare it belonged to.” Rainbow sighed. “At first they told her no. They told her that by the time she was gone her heart would be ineligible for donation and there was nothing that they could do about it. I never saw her look so determined as she did for what she said next. Her next speech was all about how she was gonna die soon so why not just switch out the bad ticker for the good one. Let her take the bad ticker and have some time for goodbyes and give you the chance to say good morning.” Twilight sat speechless, her mouth slowly opening and closing in shock. Applejack had given her her heart in every way possible. She rubbed her hoof over her heart, “So she sacrificed her life just so I wouldn't die, how could she do that to me? I would rather have joined her-” She was stopped in mid sentence by a harsh stinging sensation on her cheek that was quickly accompanied by the sound of hoof meeting flesh. Head reeling at the contact whilst trying to focus on what was now being yelled at her, “DON’T YOU DARE THINK THAT! DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT WAS FOR ALL OF US TO ACCEPT HER DECISION? SHE KNEW THAT YOU WOULD BE ABLE TO FIND HAPPINESS WITHOUT HER! SHE TRUSTED YOU TO CARRY ON FOR HER AND TO REMEMBER HER! DON'T YOU DARE THINK LIKE THAT!” Rainbow Dash, unable to continue, stormed out in tears. Twilight blinked a few times, unsure of what had just happened. Rainbow had gone from nostalgic sad to raging mad in seconds, and it didn't make sense to Twilight. Rainbow was many things but she never used to wear her emotions like that. Her thoughts continued to spin, trying to figure out what had just happened. Her stupor was broken by the sudden sound of a door slamming open. Her father sauntered in followed by Shining Armour and Cadence. “TWILIGHT SPARKLE! YOU HAVE SOME NERVE, NEARLY GETTING YOURSELF KILLED AND LETTING US FIND OUT THROUGH THE NEWSPAPER!” Twilight sat transfixed by her dad for a moment before she realized it was him. She tilted her head sideways and let out a little giggle. “Dad, are bucking serious?” Her giggling stopped and Rainbow was forgotten as she turned a death glare to her father. “You think I bucking care how much I hurt you, after everything you did to me, after everything I did to escape you. You think I give two shits about how...You...FEEL.” Twilight ended her sentence in a scream as she lashed out at her dad. Shining caught her hoof and the room fell silent, not even a cricket dared break the silence that filled every corner of the room. Slowly Cadence and Shining Armor wrapped their lavender sister in a hug and held her tight. Her lip quivered for a moment before she through her hooves around her BBBFF and her old foal sitter. “Shiny, Cadence, it’s so great to see you.” “We know Twily, we know.” Both of them released Twilight and took a step back. Shining spoke up with a slight smile. “Are you calmer now?” Twilight shook her head slowly. “Okay then.” Shining motioned his father forward. “Please hear him out.” “Twilight...” he walked over to her and wrapped her in his forelegs causing her to stiffen and clench her teeth. “I can't ever make up for the way I treated you after I found out you were a filly fooler, trying to send you away to be fixed...” Twilight hissed and her eyes darted to her brother who only nodded his head. She mouthed a few words at him and mimed strangling her father behind his back then a stabbing motion. Her father either missed it or didn't care and continued. “If your mom hadn't stepped in you and stopped me you never would have become the great pony you are, but I feel as though I caused this accident by chasing you away because of your filly fooling ways. I know it's dumb of me to think that, but I know that in some way, you were running from me. Your mom shared all the news she got from you over the years with me, it made me realize that I had to try and look past the prejudices I had been raised with and reach out to my only daughter, but I was too stubborn for my own good.” Twilight's fathers words became intelligible as the sobs took over. Twilight gently placed a hoof on her father’s head as indecision crossed her face. Part of her wanted to shove him as far away as possible, another part wanted to beat him and another felt sorry for him. The sheets on her lap were rapidly darkening as he sobbed and Twilight’s mind warred with itself over what to do. After several moments she opened her mouth, then closed it and chewed her lip. “No, I don’t forgive you, what you did...there is no excuse.” The sobbing grew louder. “But...” Twilight paused and looked at her brother and Cadence who both nodded and motioned for her to go on. “In light of recent revelations I can try...to...” Twilight’s face twisted like she was trying to swallow cough medicine as she trailed off. “I can try to give you...a chance. Just one, buck it up and it’s over. I don’t think you deserve and Celestia knows I would love to dance on your grave but...I don’t have a lot right now so you get one more shot. If you fail I will...I will find a way to make the rest of your life as miserable as you made mine.” Nightlight buried his face deeper into Twilight’s lap as he squeezed harder, the sobs redoubling in their efforts and the occasional, nearly incoherent yes drifted up from her lap. After a moment he raised his head. “I swear Twilight, I won’t waste this chance. I don’t know how I will do it but I will prove to you that I have changed, that I can find it in myself to, if not accept then look past that one part of you to see everything else. I swear to you I will do whatever I have to to make it up to you.” “Twilight, dear, I see your father beat me here.” Twilight's mother stood at the door to her room smiling gently. “It really was hard on him, these past eight years.” Shining and Cadence both walked up to Twilight with their mother. “Yeah, dad was livid about the filly foolery rumors in the paper...” Shining paused and stepped a little bit further from Cadence as she shot him a glare for using such a bias term.“but after he read about the coma and the chances of you returning being so small, he seemed to forget about the...unique view on love you have and was only concerned for you. He nearly quit his job when they tried to tell him he couldn't take a vacation to come see you, the police had to get involved to prevent him from doing anything. It was hilarious.” Twilight stared down at her father, not sure of what to make of what she was seeing and hearing. “Does he really care that much? I used to think that he hated me, after those threats he made I left because I thought he hated me. It was kind of foolish to cut off all ties with him but, he hurt me bad.” Twilight shook her head and sniffled. “I can't imagine how hurt he must have been when I told him that I never wanted to talk to him again before I left for Ponyville but at the same time I felt pleasure in knowing it hurt him but now...” Twilight trailed off a little and ran a hoof through her fathers mane. “The only thing I ever said to him after that fight was that I was leaving to come here to Ponyville and that I never wanted to see or hear from his bigoted flank again. Part of me was running away from him and honestly I had moments where I wanted to reach out to him but I was too stubborn. To stubborn to admit that he was my dad and too stubborn to admit I loved him whether he accepted all of me or not. I imagine it was the same for him. I never thought the day would come when I would see him cry over me like this, I never thought a day would come when I could see him as a father, even if I don’t think he is a father he certainly looks like one right now.” Her dad looked up at her as she said this. “Twilight, I will make every effort to be the father I should have been. It might take me a while but I will do everything I didn't do before. I had eight long years to to think about it, and I though I can never get the lost years back I will do everything I can to make the rest of them count.” Her father's sobs had subsided and he was trying to compose himself, “I will learn to shrug off my distaste of you bringing mare's home instead of stallions, I will learn to be there for you like I never was in that past. Most of all, I will love you no matter what you do and I will never let you go again, I will never let us drift apart like we have been ever since you first brought a mare friend home. Never again. I will take the chance you have given me and I will use it to build a relationship like we always should of had.” There was a sudden popping sound and Twilight flailed her hooves for a second before catching herself. She reached up and poked the tiny foal that now clung to her face. “Umm? Does anypony know anything about this blue foal stuck to my face?” Everypony but Twilight broke down into fits of laughter. “Aunt Sleeping Princess, you’re awake, now we can play.” The tiny blue foal dropped from the face hug into her lap and began shake from side to side. “Twilight, meet Crystal Twilight, your niece.” Shining and Cadence chimed at the same time. “She has a knack for diffusing serious situations and calming people down.” Cadence leaned into Shining. Twilight was breathless for second before scooping up the foal and squeezing her in a massive hug, “Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod you are adorable.” Twilight could barely contain her excitement, she had been looking forward to her brothers children since the wedding. “She is adorable!” “Aunt Sleepy, are you okay? Your eyes are leaking.” Crystal asked as she put a hoof on Twilight's cheek. “Yes Crystal I am. I am just so happy right now, my brother has a child and I have sort of made up with my dad. This has been the greatest day for me.” Twilight said with the biggest grin as she nuzzled the baby foal. “Cadence, this is weird, Crystal never stays in one place this long.” Shining said as he leaned into Cadence. “I don’t think she has been this still; since she was born.” The foal suddenly popped out from between Twilight's hooves and onto her head where she snuggled into her mane and fell asleep. “Okay that is adorable, but still doesn't explain the lack of chaos that usually follows her around.” Cadence and Shining leaned against each other and sighed, “I have waited eight years for this. It’s a little awkward to be reuniting in the hospital like this but Luna be damned if this doesn't feel right.” Rainbow cleared her throat loudly making everypony jump. “I know this is a touching moment and all but- ummm- I...can I say something to Twi'.” Twilight looked at Rainbow. “Rainbow if it's to apologize about what happened earlier don't, I am the one who should be sorry. I lost it when I realized how I was still alive, and you were right about everything” Rainbow shook her head slowly as she walked up to Twilight and hugged her. “It's okay we were all saddened by her decision but we have had more time to accept it than you did, I should have been more sensitive to how you might feel about it.” “No you were right to lose it, there are better ways to find out somepony gave up their life so you could keep yours.” “She really did it then. I can’t believe it, she went through with it.” Night Light hung his head and sighed. “You knew?” Rainbow and Twilight chimed in at the same moment, eyes fixed on Twilight's dad. Night Light shook his head. “Yea, I did. She came to me for help in the matter. Something about needing consent from a family to perform the switch. Without my consent she never would have been able to receive your heart and give you hers in exchange. I was stunned when I got the letter and even more so when I met her. I don't think I have ever met a more honest mare in my life. She really loved you with everything she was. I hope you can forgive me for helping her do what she did. I know it’s not a great start but she begged me to help.” “Father, I can't bring myself to be mad, I want to be but she wanted it more than you from the sound of it. Maybe part of you had selfish reason but you still helped her, helped her save my life. A life I thought you hated you helped another mare save, that speaks worlds to me.” Twilight wrapped her dad in a hug, “Thank you for helping her give me her legacy and love. I will cherish the heart she gave me even more knowing it helped me rekindle my bond with my father.” The room grew silent as the rest of the ponies joined in on the hug and a small blue filly rolled over in twilight’s mane. “It's great to have you back.” Twilight’s family and Rainbow all spoke at the same time, none of them noticing the slightly pained expression in Twilight’s eyes.