I wake up to find myself in bed again, a hospital bed this time. I try to move but stop when I feel pain strike through my chest.
Right. Hospital.
I look to my left to see a heart rate monitor, going up and down in time with my pulse, but I don't hear it beeping.
I look to my right to see Ash and Spark, at least I think that's who it is. Standing next to each other, Ash stands up straighter and I can still see the laughter in her eyes. Spark's eyes are set into a glare, untrusting, unhumorous, and she hunches down almost as if to launch herself forward.
Ash stands up. "Welcome back to the wide wide world of reality, Applejack - speaking relatively, of course. I'd hate to lose you."
Spark doesn't move. "Good to know you can take a punch, cousin. Your dying would be mighty inconvenient."
Great. I have two ponies who look like me, following me around everywhere when only I can see them, and they're talking about what's convenient.
I can see Nurse Redheart, entering the room, then looking startled when she sees I'm awake. Her lips move, but I don't hear her saying anything.
Her lips stop moving and she waits expectantly for an answer.
"I can't hear." I say. At the very least, I try to. I can't hear what I'm saying so it might be anything.
Whatever I said, Nurse Redheart comes back with a glass of water and I drink it.
She buzzes around for a few more minutes, moving her lips all the while until eventually she stands up and leaves.
"What did she say?" I ask Ash and Spark.
Spark looks at the door she was leaving in. "She was talking about your injuries, she thinks you took a bad fall down some stairs. Technically, she's correct."
Ash shakes her head. "She was talking about how much you've done for the town and said if you need anything at all while you're here, to let her know." She finishes with a suggestive wink and eyebrow movement.
Okay. Less than helpful.
I see the door open again and Twilight and Lyra trot inside with Nurse Redheart.
They say something I can't hear and I shake my head, raising a hoof to point at my ear. Twilight turns and says something to Nurse Redheart, who nods her head.
Lyra's eyes fill with tears and she buries her face in my sheets.
Ash opens her mouth to say something but I silence her with a look.
Twilight pats Lyra on the back and says something, smiling, then she looks at me and casts a spell. The spell takes forms purple letters spelling out, 'Some of your ribs were broken and your eardrum ruptured but it should heal in a month or two. The deafness is temporary.'
My eardrum ruptured? But when could it have done that? Won't I have noticed?
Spark shakes her head. "You uncovered your ears at their most sensitive and listened into Ponyville, then you got hit with a high pitched scream, and you're wondering when it happened? I feel sorry for the mare that screamed. It's clear you can't help and I don't think anypony else did either. Makes me want to find who did it and buck his face in."
"But I talked to you after I heard the scream."
Spark rolls her eyes. "You're talking to me now."
I smile at Lyra and rub my hoof behind her ear. She looks up and gives me a tear filled smile before Nurse Redheart says something again and Twilight and Lyra leave.
Nurse Redheart points at a bell next to my bed and leaves.
I'm left with Ash and Spark.
Spark grinds a hoof into the floor. "Useless. We should be out there, trying to find out what happened to that mare."
Ash nods. "Right. Then the mare can 'thank' us for our kind services."
"Well, I would be up and about if Spark hadn't attacked me, earlier. What's the matter? Scared to finish the job?"
Spark scoffs. "Are you saying you would have found what happened to the mare if I hadn't stopped you, completely deaf? I want to find what did it, and what 'it' is, and I can't do that if you rush into battle without a full sense."
I sigh. "You could have just told me."
Spark shakes her head. "You wouldn't have believed me if I had. You could hear me just fine and we hadn't even met before. Why would you trust my honesty?"
She's right. I wouldn't have listened.
"What now, then? It's supposed to be one or two months before my hearing recovers. We can't do anything about the scream now."
Ash laughs. "Have you already forgot about the cut? It healed up before you even exited the cave. This won't slow you down for long."
The cut.
The cave.
"What do you know about the cave?" I ask.
Ash smiles. "I know that Twilight wouldn't just leave that abnormal body down there without studying it. I also know that not once when you saw her did she say anything about it. What do you think it means?"
Spark grits her teeth. "Twilight's hiding things from us. Or else, for some reason she didn't take the body - but why? I wonder if there wasn't a fourth mare in that cave."
I shift in my bed, taking care for my wrapped broken ribs. "How and why could there be a fourth mare in the cave? I was there and paying attention and there ain't a reason for it, besides."
Spark shakes her head. "Twilight and Lyra are unicorns, why couldn't the mare have used magic to make herself invisible?"
I sigh. "Y'know this isn't helping me recover."
Ash grins. "No, but turning the lights out will."
I glance up at the lamp above me, illuminating the area. "What makes you say that?"
Ash raises an eyebrow at me. "Your cut healed quickly in the dark cave and shaded rain, yet you still haven't recovered here. Why? Is it because your wounds are greater? But that cut you had was quite wide and healed nearly instantly in the dark. Your healing should have advanced here at the same rate, but there's a light here. So it didn't."
I shake my head. "No. That doesn't make any sense, my hearing wasn't sensitive in the cave and in the rain. Why would my healing be?"
Ash smiles. "I'm not talking about your hearing. I'm talking about how you healed a cut that wide in only a few minutes."
A few minutes?
I shake my head, harder this time. "No. It takes much more than a few minutes to get from the cave to Sweet Apple Acres."
Ash frowns. "But how could you get back to Sweet Apple Acres from a cave twenty eight minutes away, before a four minute shower finished?"
Four minutes? That can't be right.
Ash laughs. "But it is right. The morning before you went into the cave you checked the weather for the week, you need to keep track, as a farmpony. If you remember, the forecast for that day was a shower starting at nine thirty-five pm and ending at nine thirty-nine pm. When you talked to Rainbow Dash earlier, she said it started and ended at just those times. Big Macintosh, himself, asked."
"So Big Macintosh knows something happened."
Ash shrugs. "Or he thinks you're lying. Either way, I'd want to chat with him as soon as you can."
"That makes sense, I reckon. I haven't talked to my family about this at all and I'm supposed to be the element of honesty."
I flick the switch next to my bed and lie down to sleep.
Spark leaves me with something to think about before ii fall asleep. "Even if Big Mac suspects something, why are Twilight and Lyra the only ponies who visited?"