12 days before the surgery:
It was about a week before the surgery date that was chosen to be the 23rd. I laid in my hospital bed, telling jokes to myself as there was nopony to talk to. Suddenly, a very audible click was heard and I immediately sat up (with great difficulty, of course). In came Rarity, my cousin, who I planned to move in with. She looked around, then saw me, her eyes locked on target. The target being my stump. Her eyes burst into tears as she galloped at full speed towards me and hugged me, knocking the wind out of me. The whole time we embraced, she kept crying and sobbing. At some point her fabulous make-up started to run. I rubbed her back and told her in her ear it would be fine.
She asked me, "How can you be so sure?" To which I replied, "I'm going to be in the surgical room where they'll be fitting me with a prosthetic leg." She smiled wide and wiped the make-up off with her handkerchief, taking off the fake eye lashes on the process. She then sat down and re-applied the make-up. I tried to get my make-ip with my magic, but being the weakest unicorn in terms of magic, it wouldn't budge. I'm slowly starting to see what it's like being disabled. You can't do what should come as second nature.
I might have to visit that treatment center when this is all over.
10 days before the surgery:
"So that's when I got the call you were in the Hospital for a train injury. I thought it might've been a thing that would have killed you. In a way, I was so relieved when I saw it was just a limb. Because it meant you would live!" Rarity kept on blabbing about how terrified she was, she didn't notice five other ponies came through the door until I coughed awkwardly and said, "Hello?" to the visitors. She turned around and got bright eyed and smiled wide. She rushed over to the ponies and turned to face me as she said, "These are my friends! Gem, I want you to meet Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and...wait, where's Fluttershy? She was just here a second ago..."
Suddenly, a creamy yellow Pegasus came from behind the purple one, who was Twilight, and waved shyly to me. I waved back with right foreleg and she whimpered a small "H-hello..."
Rarity pulled her away from Twilight and smiled. "And this is Fluttershy. These other five ponies are my friends!" She then turned to them and said, "Friends, this is my cousin, the famous--"
"Gem Beauty!!!" Pinkie Pie, the pink one, exclaimed. Rarity cocked her head sideways as she realized Pinkie Pie must have known me from somewhere. But both Rarity and I had trouble figuring out how. Pinkie giggled and said, "I work at Sugarcube Corner. You order from us all the time!" I nodded and mouthed an 'oh'. Then I replied, stating "I love your cakes. They're so yummy, I think I gained 5 pounds at one point. It was no good, but I still ate that cake while I exercised." She giggled, snorting a bit. Rarity beamed as she said, "I see already you're growing used to them, Gem. You know, I had managed to get them all tickets to your fashion show. Rainbow Dash was unwilling at first, but then she said 'why the heck not?' It was too funny, the look on her face when she saw you up on stage wearing such fabulous clothing."
"Hey, it's not my fault the clothes were cool!" Rainbow Dash said with a red face. She was the cyan colored one with the multi-colored mane. I could only laugh in response to her face. They all laughed soon after.
9 days before the surgery:
I was turned the lamp on and off repeatedly when I got a knock on my door. In came the doctor, holding a clipboard and having a concerned face. He opened his mouth, then closed it as he paced. Once again he opened it, but actually said something. He said, "So, we're going to have to speed up the days before the surgery, seeing as we're already done building the prostheses."
"What do you mean, doctor?" I asked.
He said, "I mean the surgery has been changed to tomorrow, first thing in the morning."
8 0 Days before the surgery:
I was out like a light. So, I can't really tell you the details. But...even in my sleep, I had felt the pain of being sliced open on my stump as they put metal parts on the inside of it. I could feel them placing special wires in there and connecting them, connecting them to nerves through welding, and eventually, they popped something in, causing me a great deal of pain. But thankfully, I knew it was over when they did that. Because soon after, they brought me back from under, my eyes drowsily opening to the bright lights of the operating room. They all cheered when I awoke, glad this was a successful operation. I looked to my left stump, and there was a metal foreleg in its place. It all a cold steel color, with rubbing for the parts where the knee and shoulder bend.
I started smiling. I wasn't aware, but later on that day, they told me I was smiling. They then began pushing my gurney to a place to rest, but I was too excited to rest. I would be able to walk again. So, I stayed up all day and even all night. The following day, I was asked to get out of the bed. I started by using my right foreleg, but the doctor told me to try and use my left foreleg before I could even move. So, I strained to control the prosthetic leg and with great struggle, kicked the sheets off.
The second those sheets flew off the bed, I knew...
This was going to be a long journey ahead.