Misfortunes

by Spectral

Awakening

ATTENTION
Here's the deal: I'm going to rewrite this story. The reason is that I wasn't really satisfied with it, especially the beginning. Anyhow, the rewritten thing will be posted as a new story, with a different name. You will be able to find it on my profile page. The story will follow the same basic line of events, but I want to focus more on interaction and relations between the characters.

I will leave this original story up, but there will be no further updates on it UNTIL I've gotten this far in the rewritten version. Which may take a while. So anyhow, didn't really feel good leaving you guys with a cliffhanger, so here's the beginning of the next chapter.

~ Rainbow Breeze

---

Chapter 6

It took a while before Applejack even realized that she was conscious. The first thing she noticed was the brightness. Strong light shined upon her, piercing through her closed eyelids. Instinctively, she tried to lift a hoof to block the light out. Nothing. She couldn't move at all, nor could she feel her body.
"Strange." She spent a moment pondering what this could mean, however thinking seemed to be much harder and slower than usual. She felt all fuzzy and could barely concentrate at all, so she just decided to let it go. Normally, not being able to move would have upset her, but she felt cozy right now, and it didn't really seem to matter. If only the light would diminish.

After a while, Applejack started hearing things. Quick hoofsteps, ponies chatting silently, somepony crying. Again, she spent a while thinking about where she could be but the only conclusion she could come to, was that she wasn't dead, which was a relief.

The background noises grew progressively stronger, until she was hearing everything at a normal volume. She also started feeling her own body again and being able to move, though nothing more than a small twitch at a time. While this was happening, she also grew aware of a throbbing pain from her left front leg, as well as her right hind leg. She also felt itchy all over the body, as if she had been coated in itching powder. The whole experience was starting to get uncomfortable, and Applejack felt the urge to just do something. Before she could think of anything, she heard some familiar voices coming into hearing distance.

"How is she?" Applejack had to think for a while before realizing that this was Twilight Sparkle's voice. She sounded worried. Judging from the hoofsteps, the group stopped just a few meters away.

"She has a broken hind leg and a front leg with several fractures, but otherwise she's fine." This was a stallion's voice, calm and comforting, but Applejack couldn't recognize it at all.

"T-then... W-why isn't she awake?" Applejack recognized Fluttershy's stuttering voice that she would get whenever talking to strangers.

"We had to do some surgery for the front leg, and we gave her narcotics. She should wake up soon." This was the unknown stallion again.

"You all seem to have done a marvelous job."

"Thank you, miss Rarity. Though it will be weeks before her legs are completely healed, and she can walk again" the stallion continued. Applejack heard a gasp before another pony spoke up with a really enthusiastic and fast-talking voice.

"That means we can throw a Get-better-party! Ooo! Or we could wait until she's fine again and throw an even bigger Congratulations-for-getting-better-party! Or we could do BOTH!" Pinkie Pie gasped for air, and Applejack smiled on the inside at her friend's antics.

"Well, thank you very much for patching her up, Doctor" said Twilight. Doctor. Applejack suddenly realized what was going on. She was in an hospital. And, judging from what the doctor had said, she had two broken legs.

"That explains the pain... And the fuzziness" she thought to herself. However, she had a nagging feeling that there was something else, something she had forgotten.

"It's what we're here for" the Doctor replied. "Remember, when she wakes up, she ought to be a bit light-headed, so take it easy with her. She may suffer a temporary amnesia. That's all" he continued, and Applejack could hear his hoofsteps fade away as he left them.

Applejack's own memory was failing her, and she was really wanted to ask the others what had happened with her. She began fighting the drowsiness, desperately trying to move, hoping to wake up her sleeping body. And with a huge effort, she managed to open her eyes. Applejack gasped for air and her whole body jerked as it awoke from the paralysis-like sleep it had been in.

Applejack was in a standard hospital bed with white sheets. The bed had been adjusted to mimic a pillow, so Applejack half sat, half lied down. Her broken front leg was plastered from the hoof up to shoulder, and it was suspended in the air in front of her. Her hind leg was plastered as well, but it just lied atop the sheets. Above her in the ceiling hung the brightly shining lamp that had been annoying her.

At the right side of her bed she saw Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie all standing and looking at her. Pinkie was the first to speak.

"You're awake! she said happily as she jumped forwards and gave her a big hug.

"Barely." Applejack hugged her back, still feeling dizzy, just like the doctor said she would. "Ouch. That hurts, Pinkie." Pinkie Pie immediately let go of her and jumped backwards a few feet, standing next to the others again.

"Well, as you can see you've got two broken legs" explained Twilight, giving her a smile. "It will be a while before you can walk again."

"Ah heard the doc say that" Applejack paused, trying to organize her thoughts. "What happened to me anyways?" she asked. As she looked at her friends, she realized somepony was missing. "An' where's Rainbow?"

"You don't remember?" Rarity asked while she traded uncertain glances with the others.

"We don't really know..." Fluttershy said silently, hiding behind her mane. Applejack was a bit worried now.

"Tell me what y'all know. Ah can't remember a thing..."

"Well" Twilight said while taking a step forward. "There's been a horrible storm for the last couple of days. You and Rainbow Dash had, according to Apple Bloom, went out for a picnic in Whitetail Wood just before the storm arrived. When you didn't come back, we were all of course very worried. So the four of us plus Big Macintosh organized a search party. We found you on the third day. That was yesterday." Applejack just stared up into the white ceiling while her memories slowly came back to her. She remembered the thunderstorm. The rain pouring down, lightning bolts shooting from the sky, rolling thunder. She could recall a cave, where they had their picnic? No, they had been looking for shelter... They couldn't go back, because... She had been wounded. She had broke her leg somehow, and Rainbow Dash had splinted it.

"Tell me more" she said slowly, with a trembling voice.

"There isn't much more. When we found you, both you and Rainbow Dash were severely wounded, and there was footprints all over the place from something. Something large." Applejack gasped as the rest of the memories rushed back into her mind. The walk, the bear, the fight. Rainbow Dash bleeding to death... I love you. Her final words echoed through Applejack's mind. Applejack started crying uncontrollably.

Her friends just stood and stared at her for a second, not expecting that kind of response, before they all rushed forwards and hugged her.

"It's alright..."

"Nopony's going to hurt you..."

"We're here..."

But they didn't understand. They couldn't understand. Applejack loved Rainbow Dash, and now she was gone. She wanted to explain to them how she felt, try to make them see. But all the words she would manage to utter between her sobs were:

"R-rainb-bow D-dash..."

"Rainbow Dash just came out of surgery, Applejack. The doctors says she's stable now." Twilight Sparkle looked Applejack in the eyes. "She will be fine."

Comments

[RDash]

This story is awesome! Keep up the great work!

[ArcaneTrex]

so you didnt have her die a horrible and painful death
thats
expected?
well lets see where this goes now :D