Wings of Friendship

by DemonBrightSpirit

Tizzy

Murmuring voices invaded the black nothingness. Then, light. At first it was just a dim grey, but it quickly brightened showing a couple of formless blobs. Now the voices began to from not only words, but sentences. "Hey, she's coming to," a feminine voice echoed.

"Take it easy," a second, masculine voice sounded.

A few blinks and two pegasi came into focus. They were a mare and a stallion both wearing white caps each decorated with a red cross. It was about that time when she realized she was lying flat on her back. She gave her head a good shake to try to clear the fog before trying to roll over to get on her hooves. That's when a thought so horrible crossed her mind that she stumbled and fell back onto her side. She let out a meek little yelp and didn't try to get back up as memories started flooding back.

Rainbow Dash! She had fallen right out of the sky!

"Easy now," the paramedic mare offered in a sweet, soothing voice as she tried to gently nudge Fluttershy to her hooves. "You fainted, but everything is all right now."

Now that she was standing, Fluttershy took the opportunity to look around in a panic. There was the lake. That spot on the shore where-where… Fluttershy had to look away and her eyes quickly fell on the ambulance. She looked around for the other one, but it was nowhere to be seen. "…ash. W-where?" the shaking mare muttered incoherently.

"Are you feeling all right?" the stallion gently asked. "Do you need us to take you to a hospital?"

"Where is Rainbow Dash!?" Fluttershy blurted out in a voice louder than most ponies had ever heard her use.

The paramedics glanced at one another before the mare spoke up, "They thought that the Ponyville hospital was closer, so they rushed her there." As soon as she got the words out, both pegasi had to cover their faces with a wing to shield them from a sudden burst of wind. As they recovered, they found the mystery mare to be gone. "Those competitors really are something," she muttered.

---

Fluttershy's adrenaline rush rapidly gave way as her wings quickly exhausted themselves. When her wings could no longer move her towards Ponyville fast enough, she hit the ground running—literally. Her legs carried her the rest of the way into Ponyville. Preoccupied with dreaded thoughts about her friend, she didn't even notice the stares she got as she raced through town. She didn't stop when she reached the hospital. Bursting through the doors, she kept up her momentum until she crashed right into the nurse's station.

"Can I…help you?" the nurse behind the counter asked with a bit of concern.

Fluttershy nodded as she struggled to catch her breath. After a few seconds of breathing nearly as frantically as her worries, she found her voice, "Rain… guh …Rainbow Dash." Giving another second or two of heavy breathing before swallowing, she continued, "Is-is she here? Is she okay?"

The nurse frowned as she nodded. "Rainbow Dash was checked in just a little while ago."

"Is she okay?" Fluttershy repeated the question.

The nurse sighed at the pleading look the pink-maned pegasus was giving her. "All I can say is that she is in very serious condition," she muttered. "I'm not allowed to say anything more. I'm not even supposed to have said that much."

"P-please," Fluttershy begged, not even noticing her panic-driven courage to push the matter. "I need to know."

Fearing she would end up caving in if she had to keep looking at the pathetic pony in front of her, she pointed a hoof at the door. "Visiting hours have long since passed. If you don't have a medical emergency, please see yourself out," she ordered in the most callous voice she could muster.

The next thing Fluttershy knew, she was sitting just outside the hospital doors crying her eyes out. It wasn't the fact that the nurse wouldn't tell her much that bothered her. Quite the contrary. She let Fluttershy know that Rainbow Dash was still alive, and that knowledge brought some semblance of comfort to the ailing pony. With the worry of her friend having died in the accident abated, Fluttershy was torn back to the injury she witnessed and all the horrible consequences it entailed.

How am I supposed to comfort her? What can I possibly do for her? Fluttershy mourned. She probably won't even want to see me.

As she pondered what to do a thought struck her like a series of heavy items dropped from the back of a moving truck high above her head. Her friends! They were always the ones she turned to in her time of need! But, more importantly, they had no idea what was going on!

Drying her eyes and stumbling on shaky legs, she set off for Twilight Sparkle's library. The whole gang would be there. They had planned a surprise party for Rainbow Dash to celebrate her victory or to cheer her up if she lost. Neither of those things had happened. Instead, something truly horrible had occurred and her friends were sitting there completely unaware. They were probably getting worried by now, too. It was already starting to get dark.

Finally, the library began to come into view. The sight of it actually caused Fluttershy to slow down, her own trepidation causing a hitch in her step. The bearer of bad news was not a mantle she fancied wearing. But wear it she must, and with a wavering resolve, she managed to make it to the library's door. Taking a minute to psyche herself up and swallow her fears, Fluttershy managed to summon just enough courage to open the door and step inside.

"SURPRISE!"

Even though she was already prepared for the onslaught, Fluttershy still recoiled and cowered at the sudden burst of light and noise.

"Heeey, where's Dashie?" Pinkie Pie accused in a serious tone, only to replace it with her normal, jovial voice in the next breath. "You did know that this party was for her, right? You were supposed to bring her here, silly!"

Twilight Sparkle was the first to realize the panicked expression on Fluttershy's face was far more serious than her being startled by the welcome. "Fluttershy…is everything okay?" she gently prodded as she and the other ponies plus Spike stepped away from their hiding spots.

Fluttershy shook her head. "N-no."

The tension in the room had gone from slight worry to near-panic with the utterance of a single word. "W-what's wrong, sugarcube?" Applejack asked with all the seriousness and empathy she could summon.

Fluttershy tried to respond, but all that came out was a squeaking sound too quiet to be heard by most.

It was Rarity that finally asked the question on everypony's lips. "Fluttershy," she started with a bit of apprehension, "does this have something to do with Rainbow Dash?"

Fluttershy cowered a bit as she nodded. Even though she thought that she was doing a pretty good job hiding it, everypony saw tears falling behind the pink veil. "S-sh-she…" the shy pony stammered out. It wasn't just the fact that she didn't want to cause her friends pain with the unfortunate news that was making this so hard for her. She didn't want to believe it herself. If she said it—those few words—then it would have to be real. More than anything, Fluttershy did not want that.

Twilight put a hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder as she did her best to look the timid pegasus in the eyes. "Come on Fluttershy. You are our friend. We—all of us—are here for you," the alicorn gently coaxed as she sat next to Fluttershy and draped a leg over her shy friend's withers and used the other foreleg to motion towards their friends. "You can tell us anything."

Closing her eyes tight and drawing a deep breath, Fluttershy worked up the courage to speak. "Th-there was an accident at the competition! Dash just…just—she fell right out of the sky!" Even though she was shouting, it was still about the volume most ponies spoke with. "T-th-they t-took her to the-the here. Ponyville hospital!" she muddled as her burst of courage faded.

"Ohmygosh! Is she okay!?" Pinkie shouted, causing Fluttershy to flinch and earning her a couple of glares.

Fluttershy relaxed a bit as she shook her head before swiping at her tears.

"Well, what're we all standin' 'round here for? Let's go!" Applejack insisted as she headed for the door.

Twilight did her best to get Fluttershy back on her hooves as Pinkie and Rarity started after Applejack. "Spike, can I count on you to take care of things here?" she asked as she nudged Fluttershy to the door.

"S-sure thing, Twilight," Spike assured. "Just…um, I mean, I hope everything turns out okay."

"Me, too Spike," Twilight Sparkle sighed as she used her magic to pull the door closed behind her. "Me, too…"