//------------------------------//
// Lacerations 
// Story: One Last Trick 
// by Cloud Hop 
//------------------------------//

For some reason, I expect to dramatically burst into tears and pitiful sobbing. Perhaps I watch too many movies. Instead, I just stare at the rainbow-maned pegasus in front of me with trembling lips, and then slowly return my gaze to the wall in front of my bed.

"...Amputated?" I ask in a small voice, filled with fear.

My companions are silent. Rainbow Dash nuzzles my cheek. The doctor begins fiddling with various things over by the counter as I just stare at the wall in shock. I feel like I should be crying, but all I can feel is disbelief. These kinds of things happened to other ponies, not to me. This couldn't be happening. It couldn't.

"W-why?" I eventually croak, looking back over to Rainbow Dash.

She hesitates. "Well, I should really start at the beginning, but..."

"I don't want you two to go over that until tomorrow," finishes the doctor. "I want to give you some more time to try and remember yourself. Memories are best discovered ourselves, hmm?"

"But—" I protest, only for the doctor to cut me off.

"I can tell you how you looked when you were rushed into the ER, if you like. I can explain why we had to amputate your wings to save your life. What I can't do is tell you why you ended up in my emergency room. That is something for you two to discuss tomorrow." He pauses and picks up a clipboard with his magic. "Would you like me to go over your injuries?"

Nervous feelings hold an icy grip around my heart, and I take a deep, shuddering breath to calm my nerves before answering. "...Yes, please."

The unicorn uses his magic to flip through several pages on the clipboard. He frowns, and seems to be reading something. I bite my lip, trying to keep my limbs from quaking. The tension is agonizing.

"When the medics found you, you had suffered serious injuries to almost every portion of your body. You had deep lacerations across your chest, barrel, face, and forelegs. Your right foreleg was dislocated, and you'll be missing a chunk of your left ear for the rest of your life."

I subconsciously flick my bandaged left ear. What on earth happened to me? What could have caused this kind of a crash? Celestia, he hasn't even gotten to my wings, yet.

"A shallow puncture wound narrowly missed your lungs, but it injured your liver. We're hoping that doesn't cause any serious complications later. The muscle on your right hind leg was almost completely severed, but our surgeons were able to save most of it. You'll have to stay off that for a while." The unicorn doctor paused to take a deep breath, and my chest tightened in anticipation. "Your left wing was almost completely torn off. There wasn't much to amputate. Your right wing was there, but the bones were shattered, and the muscles were shredded to ribbons. I know we have fairly advanced healing magic, but... there wasn't anything left to heal. It was just... pieces of muscle hanging off splintered bone. There was nothing we could do. I'm sorry."

I swallow a lump in my throat. I focus on my breathing. In and out, in and out, nice and slowly.

"I'll leave you two alone. Rainbow Dash, visiting hours end at midnight." Rainbow Dash nods to the unicorn as he trots out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

It is silent, save for the quiet beeping of a heart monitor, and my own nervous breathing. I stare straight ahead, trying to calm the whirlwind of thoughts going through my head. My lip trembles, and I quietly sniff. A tear escapes my eye, and dribbles down the fur on my cheek. "Why did this happen to me?" I whisper to no one in particular. Rainbow Dash nuzzles my cheek again, and gently lays a hoof across my chest. It is an odd feeling to have a stranger comforting me, but I am grateful for it all the same, even if something must have happened in those three days I couldn't remember.

We stay like that for a while. I never burst into tears. I simply lay there, quietly sniffing and swallowing the occasional sob. It is the kind of sadness that is so all encompassing that crying doesn't seem to do it justice. Rainbow Dash never says anything. There isn't anything to be said. Nothing could be said. My life has simply ended. It's over. I had toyed with fate one too many times, and now it has taken everything from me. What's the point? I don't cry myself to sleep, but I get pretty close. It's more like, sniffling and making indistinct whines of grief until the world finally falls away.

There were no dreams that night.