Chapter19: Aftermath
The day was sunny and the sun was starting to make its way down before the twilight loomed in. Animals ran here and there and the whole place was as peaceful as could b—
“NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURSE!!!!!!!!” —a loud scream shattered the tranquil ambience as her train of thought was interrupted.
Nurse Redheart galloped her way down the stairs and outside to the edge of the Everfree Forest only to find a sobbing pegasus on the ground with red, puffy eyes and a desperate look on her face.
The white mare did everything she could to inspect the two downed ponies in front of her. She quickly inspected their vital signs and realized they were both still alive, but only just barely. With all her might she turned around to the bawling yellow pony behind her and tried to console her.
“Fluttershy. Fluttershy!” —she yelled as she grabbed the sobbing pegasus by the sides of her head. “Fluttershy, I need you to go to Ponyville Hospital and get me Nurse Tenderheart and all the other urgencies ponies around available. She should be on her shift near the entrance at this time. Tell them something has happened at the edge of the Everfree Forest. Can you do that for me?”
Fluttershy seemed to calm down and nodded with tears still streaming down her face. She quickly turned and galloped towards the Hospital she had once seen her friend being attended. She entered the building and yelled.
“Nurse Tenderheart!”
Everypony around turned to the source of the noise as Fluttershy caught her breath.
—“Fluttershy? What happened, dear?”
—“Something… *huff* *huff* something has happened *huff**huff* *huff* at the *huff* at the edge of the Everfree. *huff* Please *huff**huff* please come. *huff* It’s urgent!”
A team of medical ponies quickly assembled itself as they made their way down to Fluttershy’s cottage. They arrived just in time to find Nurse Redheart giving CPR to one of the ponies and they quickly put them on stretchers and took them back to the hospital as quickly as they could, all while injecting them both with morphine and plasma to keep them alive before they could see what was wrong.
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Night had fallen already and hours had passed since she got there. She was pacing around worried about the whole situation. She had gone there as soon as she found out and was now reunited with the rest of her friends. Twilight Sparkle sighed and took out a book as she sat down trying to take her mind off it so time could pass by faster. However, concern has the exact opposite effect on things when you really care for them, so naturally, time was passing slowly for the four friends on the waiting room. Fluttershy still had red eyes ever since she found them near her house, but she had run out of tears for quite some time. Rarity had her mane entangled as she still tried to process the whole situation. As for Pinkie, she still had her hair flat and down and was still depressed. In one small corner was the Apple Family: Big McIntosh, Applebloom and Granny Smith waiting with as much dread as the group of friends about their missing member. Probably it was already midnight or even past it, but the four friends were not leaving until they knew her friends were OK. It had been two days now. Two days of visiting the hospital and they still hadn’t had any news on their friends. They had taken turns for one to watch over the room every hour or so while the other three had their business. However, since only Rarity and Pinkie had jobs that took a lot of effort and time, mostly it had taken Twilight and Fluttershy to look after the white doors of the room. However, they had finished their work early (mostly because they actually had closed rather than finished) so now the four friends looked at the white doors in a trance.
Finally, the doors opened and a doctor came outside, who was quickly surrounded by the four ponies asking desperately about their friends’ wellbeing.
He simply raised a hoof to shut them up and talked with a tired voice.
“We did as best as we could. They’ll be fine, they just need to rest.”
—“What about Rainbow?” —asked Fluttershy. “Will she be able to fly again?”
—“I wouldn’t worry so much about her rather than your other orange friend.”
—“Applejack? What happened to her?” —asked Twilight.
—“She is very delicate. Well… Both of them are, and in an equal state. However, she seems to have taken the worst beating of all.”
—“Why? What’s wrong?”
—“She was poisoned.”
—“Poisoned?!” —asked the four friends in unison.
—“Yes. She seems to have touched a Stinging Shrub. Also, both of them have multiple injuries on their bodies. Your friend had glass incrusted on her left hind leg, had a cut on her front hoof and an injury on the left side of her neck. As for your friend, Miss Dash, she seems to have some sort of burns on her body, front hooves and neck; she also presents multiple scratches and bites and her right wing has a minor gash, so don’t worry, she’ll be able to fly, it’s nothing grave. I’d like to point out however that those burns don’t seem normal. We haven’t had a case like this, so there was little we could do. We took off most of the foreign elements from them. We had to call a doctor from Canterlot to help us, but they are fine now.”
—“Wh-What do you mean by ‘foreign elements’?” —asked Pinkie.
—“Glass, dirt, pieces of branches. Anything that was considered invasive by their bodies. They are sedated right now, so I’d advise you to check them in the morning.”
—“Fine. Thank you doctor” —said Twilight.
Relieved that their friends were alive, the four ponies returned home to rest so they could visit them in the morning.
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The world grew dark around her. Memories of her being teased at flight school popped up. Everything came by rushing and going slowly. She felt depressed and wanted to end it all. She saw something move on the corner of her eye between the spinning world around her. She turned and a snake bit her on the neck. She finally managed to awake as doctors stepped inside the room to try and stabilize her again. Light made her shut her eyes once more as she grew accustomed to it.
“Alright, alright! False alarm. She seems to be stable now again” — said one of the doctors.
They put out the light and the room grew dark once more. She turned to her right to look at the window and saw a beautiful moon greeting her. She could barely remember anything that had happened. She saw she was covered in bandages and could move very little. She sighed as she tried to forget her nightmare. Rainbow had had quite a difficult time to sleep. Ever since she awoke a couple of hours ago she had had nightmares invading her mind. She wondered how Applejack could be doing. Probably she was sound asleep and didn’t have to endure her pains. With a small grunt, she turned and tried to get to sleep.
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She awoke to a white room with her mind still spinning. A strong bitter smell filled her nostrils and in front of her, three blurs were standing.
“Ah think she’s wakin’ up!”
—“Applejack? Applejack?!” —said a voice.
She finally focused her sight enough to make out the three forms. Granny Smith, Big McIntosh and Applebloom were standing at the foot of her bed with concern written all over their faces.
—“Sweetie, ya sure took quite a beatin’. Good thing the Apple blood inside ya helped ya survive” —said Granny Smith.
She still had some parts of her body that hurt and her hooves were covered in bandages.
—“Sis, are you alright?” —asked Applebloom.
AJ didn’t say anything for a moment. A tense silence loomed in on the room.
—“How long was ah out?” —she finally croaked. Her mouth still dry.
—“Two months” —answered Big McIntosh.
—“Two months?!”
—“Eeyup. Two months since the Summer Sun Celebration.”
That was not the answer she was expecting. She decided to rephrase her question.
—“How long was ah unconscious?”
—“Two days since ya were brought here. We thought you was dead.”
—“D-Dead?”
Big McIntosh then looked to the saddlebag in his side and took out a brown Stetson. It was her own, no mistaking it.
“Papa’s hat! How’d ya find it?”
—“A royal guard came and gave it to us four days after you left. Do you have any idea how worried we’ve been?”
—“Now, now, McIntosh. Yer sister’s been through a lot, don’t be harsh on her.”
—“Time’s up! The next visitors are coming” —said a doctor from outside.
—“What? So soon?” —asked the small yellow filly.
—“You’ve been here for 15 minutes.”
—“Oh” —replied Applebloom.
The three farm ponies left and Applejack’s three friends entered the room.
—“Hi, AJ. How are you feeling?” —asked Twilight.
—“Ah’m fine, thank ya. Where’s Pinkie?” —she asked, surprised to see that her pink friend was missing.
—“She’s with Rainbow Dash.”
—“Oh.”
—“So what happened?”
Applejack tried to explain as quickly as possible the whole ordeal she experienced. When she finished, her three friends were looking at her with a look of perplexity. None could believe she could survive all those trials and crossed the Everfree Forest.
“So… What do ya think?”
—“Well, I believe you were attacked by a pack of Gytrash.”
—“A what, now?”
—“A Gytrash. It’s a big black dog with incredible force. They seem to hunt at night and from what ponies describe, they come out of shadows; but since this was the Everfree, I doubt they had taken a nap or attacked after the sunlight was out. You know how difficult it is to take time in that forest. They like to hunt in packs and outnumber their victims. Nothing else is known about them.”
—“Oh… So… What about that… Thing?”
After a few seconds of thought, Twilight spoke.
—“I have my suspicions, but I think it’s better that Rainbow be here. It would be better to have you both hear it.”
—“Oh. Well, thanks fer stoppin’ by.”
—“You’re welcome, AJ. That’s what friends are for.”
The other pony on the other room was not as lucky. She had awoken a few minutes before Applejack and found herself face to face with a crying Pinkie.
“I’m sorry. I’m s-so sor-rry” —she said between sobs.
—“No, Pinkie. I’m the one who needs to be sorry” —said Rainbow Dash as she stroked Pinkie’s flat mane.
—“No. I treated you really bad. *hic* I don’t deserve to have you as friends.”
—“Hey, it’s all in the past.”
—“But still, it wasn’t even your fault. *sob* And I overreacted and yelled at you and told you all those horrible things.”
—“But you were angry, and you couldn’t think straight. I understand, Pinks.”
—“Thanks, Dashie. But still, you just can’t forgive me. My conduct was not one that I should be proud of.”
—“No, Pinkie. I neglected you as a friend and didn’t hang out with you. I’m the one who needs to be forgiven. I promise once I’m outta here I will hang out with you and pull as many pranks as I can with you.”
—“So… We’re OK?”
—“Yeah. We’re OK.”
Pinkie then leapt towards Rainbow and hugged her tightly as her pink mane returned to her puffy state.
—“Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou.”
—“Heeey! Look who’s awake!”
—“Twilight!”
—“Hi, Rainbow” —said Twilight Sparkle as the rest of her friends walked inside her room. “How are you feeling?”
—“Well… I guess I feel better.”
—“You… Guess?”
—“Yeah, I can hardly remember anything.”
—“What do you mean?”
—“Well… All I can remember straight is me fighting against those dogs and then stepping out of the Everfree Forest… Other than that, everything’s like a blur to me.”
—“Oh, well…” —said Twilight. Maybe talking about the whole ordeal she had passed through was still not a good idea. She clearly hadn’t recovered yet from the adventure she had had, so Twilight figured that she could wait until both her friends recovered to talk about it.
“Come on girls, the interns say visit time is over.”
With Twilight leading the way, the four ponies walked out of the hospital while both of their friends wondered how the other was doing.