For science

by Znegil

18 Rest

I felt strange, somehow lightheaded. When I tried to open my eyes, the light blinded me.

"Welcome back, my love."

Twilight's face slowly separated from the light. I was so happy to see her beautiful face again. I was in a hospital room. Slowly my memory came back to me. I carefully lifted my right arm to see it. I was hoping to see something else than what came in view now... it ended in a stump covered in bandages.

'It's gone... God dammit, it's gone.'

"I'm so sorry... ", Twilight cried. "I wish there was anything I could do to help you."

I tried to be as calm as possible, for my dear Twilight. "You're here for me. That is all I ever wanted."

Inside I was screaming and wanted to destroy this room. 'My fucking hand is gone.'

Twilight kissed my cheek, and I felt her tears against my skin. "You know I can feel how you really feel inside.", she whispered to me. "And it's okay to be angry at the situation. I promise to help you in every way possible."

"I guess there is no magic that could...", I started.

"No, I'm sorry. Magic was able to bring you here and to heal you, but it can not bring back what is gone."

I groaned. "I wasn't expecting it could. I have to concentrate on the positive things; Equestria is safe." I softly kissed her. "And you are."

"Seems like you're the hero this time.", she said and forced a little smile on her face.

"I don't feel like it...", I mumbled and looked at my stump.

There was a knock on the door and Applejack hesitantly entered. "Hey Stella, how are you doing... well that's a stupid question, sorry." She seemed very mixed up. "I just came by to apologize for what I said. I wasn't myself back then."

I was a bit surprised to see her like this, she seemed so vulnerable. "It's okay.", I answered. "It was a very unusual situation. Maybe I would have acted the same in reversed roles. We can try again once I'm out of this. But at the moment I would like to have some time with Twilight." I had a hard time keeping my anger about my new situation out of my voice.

"Sure, sorry. Bye.", she almost tripped over her hooves as she exited the room backwards.

I was breathing hard, and tears made my vision blurry. The pity I felt from Twilight didn't help either, I don't want to be pitied by everyone, especially not by Twilight. She climbed onto the bed and pulled me into a hug. I was surprised by what she whispered into my ear.

"Don't worry, I've got you
nothing will ever harm you.
I'm close by, I'll stay here,
through all things I will be near."

All my anger melted away. "You heard me back then?", I asked surprised.

"I may have been awake back then...", she admitted. "The way you held me felt so good, I was afraid you would have stopped when I woke up. I didn't exactly knew what it meant, but when I felt your sadness back then, this rhyme calmed me down instantly."

"It... it was my wedding vow for Viola.", I whispered.

"Oh... you know I will never leave you. You are the love of my life."

I had a hard time keeping my composure since she used the same words as Viola had used back then... and she couldn't keep that promise.

But Twilight was close to me now, and her love acted as a lightning rod to all my negative emotions. I calmed down and slowly fell back asleep. My body still needed more rest.

...

The next day more of my friends came by to see how I was doing, while Twilight stayed with me the whole time, poor Fluttershy was on the brink of tears her entire visit.

Pinkie Pie's visit wasn't what I had expected...

There was a knock at the door, and a pink pony slowly entered the room, it held the string of a single red heart balloon. Her hair was totally straight and covered part of her face.

'Who is this... wait...'

"Pinkie?", I asked.

"Hi Stella, sorry for the interruption...", she said. Her voice was monotone, nothing in her appearance had that cheerful quirkiness I had witnessed before.

"Are you sick Pinkie?", I asked, unsure what had happened to her.

Her eyes filled with tears. "No, but you are hurt.", she said sobbing. "I'm sorry for making you hurry." she buried her face in her hooves and was crying a stream of tears.

I was confused about this outbreak of emotions and didn't know how to react.

"She blames herself for your accident.", Twilight whispered in my ear sitting next to me in bed.

Finally I was able to find some sense in Pinkie's words. "No Pinkie, I wasn't hurrying because of your party, nothing of what has happened was because of you. Believe me, you had nothing to do with this, I promise."

She looked up to me. "Pinkie promise?"

"What?", I asked.

"It's a special promise me and my friends..."

"Yeah, I remember now. Fluttershy did it once.", I cut her off.

'Why do I have to console her? I'm the one who has lost her hand!' I felt anger rise inside of me.

"Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a ..." I wasn't sure how it ended.

"Cupcake in my eye.", Pinkie helped out.

"Yes, I know! You could have given me a little more time to remember!", I shouted louder than intended. "... stick a cupcake in my eye. Are you better now?!"

Twilight drew me closer and did her best to fight my rising anger with her love while she softly kissed my cheek.

Pinkie looked at me and seemed to be unsure how to react to that. Her hair got a little of her puffiness back.

I took a deep breath. "Sorry Pinkie, this is all very hard for me. I assure you nothing about this accident was your fault. There is no reason for you to feel guilty."

Once again she surprised me with her reaction. Her eyes filled with tears again, and she backed up towards the door. "I'm sorry for coming here. That was so selfish of me. I'm sorry!" She ran out of the room.

"Pinkie wait!", I shouted after her but she was already gone.

"I... I try to catch her, calm her down and explain the situation.", Twilight said and went after Pinkie.

"I believe she understands much better than you think.", I mumbled after she was gone.

Comments

[ponylover2]

I love I love this chapter can't wait 4 more uploads 2 this story

[Znegil]

7770772 I think it turned out pretty well, especially considering it was just planned as setup for the next chapter.

[Oreon]

there are a few awkward sentences that have broken english in them, as opposed to your last chapters. I'd suggest combing through this once just to make very small edits, otherwise, it's still a good story

[Interdimensional cable34]

Hurt you can feel the lose, to leave behind something so integral to your body as a arm, I would personally be more shocked and pissed at mostly myself and kick something to let out my frustrations... I think you hit the feelings of loss just right for me bravo

Now saw some mistakes in spelling but most of it can be implied for easy reading like a "save" instead of safe, and "wispered" instead of whispered now to me it doesn't hit the sorry wrong I glanced over it and still enjoyed the story

And that being said last thing her reactions to Pinkie Pie and Applejack, thou I could see myself doing it, could really have been a coping mechanism with her lost but that last sentence... I wonder what she meant by that... Hmmm (sips whiskey) interesting can't wait for next chapter

[Znegil]

7771357 Thanks for pointing out these misspellings. I hunted down every "wispered" in the whole story, I found twelve. I'm happy you liked it. About Stella's feelings... this was just the setup for the next chapter.

[Znegil]

7771010 If you can point out any, I am always very happy to change those. "Google translate" and "Google search" only gets me close to natural english, I'm counting on my readers to point out the rest.

[Oreon]

7771700 Not sure how to link, but here the ones I can find just reading through
"I promise you to help in every way possible."
"Equestria is safe and most importantly you are safe." - I dunno, sounds odd? mechanical, but not really a grammar or spelling mistake
"Seems like you are the hero this time." - same problem as above. Try using a bit more "you're"s? I honestly don't know,
"But in the moment" - weird way to say it, again, feels very mechanical. "But at the moment" feels a bit better?
"It's... it's been my wedding vow for Viola." It's been? I think this was meant to be "It was"
"I believe she understands much better then you think." *than, not then. Then is past tense.

Sorry if I seem... rude? yeah, sorry if I seem rude, I don't mean it.

PS: Is English not your first language? I didn't notice it before this chapter! sorry if I seem too critical.

[Znegil]

7771763 I'm german. Don't worry, I love it when people point out these things, everything that makes the story better is more then welcome. I will look into these things later today and change them. Right now I am at work. It's 9 am here.

Thanks again

[Interdimensional cable34]

7771693

I hear a lot of Phantom Pain theme and one armed Yang from RWBY scenamatic (hope I spelled that right ) but joking aside I can't wait to see who she copes with this new trial of her love

[Znegil]

7772122 Do you know where the 'wedding vow' is from? If not, copy it into google :-)

[Interdimensional cable34]

7772177

Actually no but it's probably obvious lol

[Znegil]

7772184 I just edited my answer. Copy it into Google and you will see :-)

[Interdimensional cable34]

7772186

Ok one moment lol

[Interdimensional cable34]

7772186

Oh that makes sense lol and I actually have it on my phone how did I not notice that eh well I hope she handles it better than her hmm

[Znegil]

7772192 I have all three soundtracks on my phone to and as I heard this part I was "Wow, this is pretty special".

Stella may be handling it worse then her (I feel sorry thinking about the next chapter)... but recovers faster.

[Interdimensional cable34]

7772210

Well we gotta wait and see

[unknowncape7377]

Get her a hyper-realistic prosthetic hand like Luke from star wars