//------------------------------// // Cross my heart // Story: Pinkie promise // by Deadcat //------------------------------// Chapter 8 cross my heart Me and Dashie sat in the lunchroom groggily. We had played through the whole night and got little sleep. Dark bags hung under our eyes as she yawned loudly, wiping sleep from her eyes as she closed them and drifted off onto my shoulder as she rested her head on me. My face went instantaneously red as Rainbow snored on my shoulder, her warm face pressed against my body. I giggled. "uh, Rainbow?" I laughed as I poked my hoof at her and she shot upwards like a rocket. "Oh...sorry" she said in a scratchy voice, her cheeks painted red. I giggled more as I played with the slop that I had been served for breakfast. I noticed the cyan pegasus picking at her food, rarely shoveling a small bite into her mouth. My eyes drifted down her slender figure and I saw her ribcage poking out and her thin stomach. Then I saw a X over her heart. I stared in shock. How could that have happened?! "DASHIE! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR CHEST!?" I blurted out loudly. Causing Rainbow to blush and sink down in her chair. Some nurses looked at us and I Immediately regretted my loudness. "I-I'm Sorry..." I shook my head and looked down. Rainbow looked up at me kindly. "Don't worry about it." She dismissed,"I can't tell you though, doctor helfing threatened me to secrecy." She cried softly. I looked at her with pain filled eyes. "If there's somepony in this hell hole you can trust, it's me RD." I stated with a warm amiable smile. "He did it to me, convinced everypony that it was self inflicted." She spoke softly and looked over her shoulder with paranoia. I was flabbergasted. I knew Dr.Helfing was a bad doctor, but to be harming a patient? It was unbelievable. Suddenly a nurse walked up to Dashie and began wrapping gauze around her chest. The cyan filly blushed out of embarrassment. "Now Rainbow Dash, eat your food" Nurse Blue Heart ordered sternly. A slight tinge of annoyance appeared on the pungent pegasus's face. "No" she defiantly declaimed. The nurse was taken aback by her bluntness, but hid her shock under a forged smile. "Now Rainbow, if you don't eat, I'm going to have my orderly friends here have to force it down your gullet." She remarked matter-of-factly. "I....don't.... give... A BUCK!" she screamed slightly as she sent her food tray clamoring to the floor. The tray cracked in half and the food splattered across the reflective clean floor, as if it was tainted. The loud clang was enough to grasp the attention of every insane patient, tired nurse, and unkempt orderly in the room. The blue nurse gasped at the sound of the seething, rainbow-maned filly's vulgar language. Two orderlies walked toward Dashie and hoisted her up. She thrashed in hopes of getting free, but to no avail. "YOU CELESTI- DAMMED ASSHOLES!! PUT ME DOWN!" She screeched as she threw all her strength into her violent shakes. They took her out of the cafeteria, and normal daily activities continued, and with all the commotion I was able to sneak out and follow Dash. She was propped on the orderlies back's facing backwards while the strong stallions faced forwards, so they didn't see me making funny faces at the azure winged pony. Her face of agitation faded into one of laughter. She erupted into hysterically giggles, and the orderlies thought nothing of it, since here at the hospital, plenty of mad ponies laugh without reason. The orderlies turned the corner into Dashies room and began to strap her down into the bed. "HEY!! WHATS THE BIG IDEA?!" The pegasi's raspy voice yelled at the sight of the restraints being locked onto her. One black maned orderly held her mouth open, while the other shoveled in spoonfuls of funky food. Rainbow hissed through clenched teeth and she spit out a mix of food and slobber onto the strong black maned stallion. The slimy food concoction landed on his face with a splat as food and saliva dribbled down the magenta eyed pegasus. She stuck her tongue out childishly. "Oh! You asked for it!" The stallion yelled as he wiped of the wet food from his face, revealing a deep scowl. He grabbed something that looked similar to a sippycup or something a foal would drink out of, compleat with a spill proof lid. They shoved it down her mouth but every little bit of the nutrients in the cup dribbled out rainbows thrashing mouth. The orderlies had finally given up. "Fine then, we will come back later, until you decide to eat something, you can stay strapped in here like a good pony," he mocked with a grin and trotted out the door. I dove under the bed before they saw me. and they trotted out to the hall without a worry. They didn't bother to lock the door, where was Rainbow gonna go anyway. "DASHIE!" I called as I ran towards her bed side. She looked at me weakly, the thin pegasus was wearing out. I began to wipe off the remaining remnants of the battle with the orderlies and she looked up quietly. "Don't you remember Dash? You have to cooperate..." I said softly,"that's the only hope we have." The cyan Pegasus shut her eyes tight. "I-I know. B-but g-g-giving in is like a-admitting they w-w-won" the pegasus's twitching became more rapid as she struggled to convey her thoughts. "I know, I know. But when they let us out. We can have this place shut down, then you can win, but for now, you have to conform." I said with a small smile as I stroked Rainbow's mane lovingly. The door opened. "Pinkamena! What are you doing here?!" Nurse Blueheart trotted towards me. I looked nervous. I wanted to fight back and tell her what I really thought. But I held in my interjections. "S-s-sorry, I- I just wanted to see if Rainbow was okay. I'll go back to the cafeteria now." I lamented sadly as I trotted back to the cafeteria, with the orderly following me close behind. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The sound of kids laughing and screaming filled the room. Crayons and pencils and stuff of all that matter laid in the center of the table. It was time for art and everypony was drawing with there non toxic colored pencils. I sat alone and waited for rainbow to return. The assignment was to draw 'something that made us happy' so naturally, I drew dashie and me having a party in ponyville. I waited for that day to become a reality, i played the scenario out in my head almost every night. "Uh, excuse me?" A quiet voice behind me pryed me from my painting. I turned around to find who the voice belonged to. A young filly still without her cutie mark named Star Flect stood nervously behind me, her yellow mane glinting in the artificial light as she poked her purple hoof at the ground. "Huh?" I questioned as I waited for her to respond. "I just wanted to say thank you" she said quietly. "What for?" I inquired. I had sometimes seen star at group therapy, but she was always so quiet and taciturn that I had never once spoken to the fragile earth pony, but I did notice her hooves were in the same kind of chains mine were. "For you and Rainbow doing the sonic rainboom! Ever since, I can't stop dreaming of it! It was so beautiful! And It gave me so much hope! I mean, if you can do that, what can I do?" She Beamed, her face brightened as a big smile crossed my face. "My pleasure" I playfully nudged her and laughed as she smiled and darted back to her seat. Finally, Rainbow walked through the door. Her magenta eyes met mine and she trotted over to me with a smile. I hoped she was okay, Had she cooperated? "Hey pinks! So what we drawin?" She asked as she grabbed a paper with her mouth and caressed the colored crayons, as if to Find the perfect one. "Something that makes us happy!" I exclaimed with a smile. Dashies eyes drifted down to my paper as her bright eyes laid on my dream. She grinned as she inspected the paper closely. "I like it," she spoke, "how about as soon as we get to Ponyville, we have a big party! Just like In the picture." My smile grew impossibly wide and I bounced up and down. "OH BOY! Really?!?!" I called as my eyes brightened. Rainbow laughed. "Of Course! And you can plan it!" She called. I nearly fell out of my seat I was so excited. I began to call out excitedly and rainbow giggled. "What are you drawing?" I asked as I watched her carefully sketch out a picture. "It's you and me doing the rainboom!" She said with a confident grin, "Pretty good right?" She said arrogantly. I nodded, my bright pink mane bounced at the fast motion of my head. I felt honored that I made Rainbow happy. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I tripped and stumbled through the hallways next to Dashie, the shackles making the ground clatter. My always cheery face was now a annoyed scowl. I kicked the ground, "I HATE this thing!" I called angrily. The rainbow-maned pegasus obviously saw my frustration. "Why don't you just... Hop?" She said. I laughed at the silly idea. "Well why not?" Rainbow continued. She was right, not like I had much to lose. I began to bounce up and down through the halls, the cuffs making a loud bang when they hit the floor, but I made a springy noise as my mane bounced up and down. "ITS WORKING!" I called out excitedly as a grin split across my face. "Well of course it is! All my ideas work!" the confident filly strided. I bounced down the hallways with ease as I was able to move Freely. The mound of patients were corralled Into the classroom where a pathetic attempts at lessons were carried out, but, most of the patients just stared in to space. I yawned as the teacher droned on about subtracting. Suddenly, a piece of paper flew over my shoulder and onto the desk in front of me. It read: "Could this class be any worse?" -Dashie I giggled slightly and wrote my response, "Yes, Dr. Helfing could be teaching it" -Pinkie I threw the paper and it sailed over to the cyan filly's desk, I soon herd a slight chuckle stifle from her desk as we continued to pass the note back and forth. A nurse trotted over to the rainbow maned pegasus's desk. Nurse Blueheart whispered something in Dashies ear, too quiet for me to hear. The pegasi's face drooped and got pale as her pupils dilated in shock. She gave me a frightened look as the nurse coaxed her out of the room. My smile faded into a look of endless worry. The happiness that flowed into a smile soon drained into a puddle of horror and curiosity. Rainbow's expression looked all panicky, and I could think of is what Blue Heart took her out for. Little did I know at that time, a great threat had arose