17. A Little Concussed
Chapter 17- A Little Concussed
Rainbow rubbed the sleep still itching her eyes as she flew from her house. Mac had already gone back to the farm, but not before wishing her good luck for the third time that morning. As she flew, she recited her moves in her head, determined to get everything right the first time. Rainbow felt as though she needed a break-out moment to wow Spitfire, and every practice brought a new opportunity.
As she approached the cloudesium, an unpleasant thought she'd managed to ignore the past few days came rushing to the forefront of her mind: Firefly was still a Wonderbolt.
While there was nothing she could really do about it, the fact still irritated her. After all, she was willing to cheat to win! Although, Rainbow could count the times she'd... bent the rules in order to win a contest.
Still, she swallowed her nerves and landed on the cloudy floor of the huge and empty arena. Various red and white stripped balloons floated calmly in the morning breeze—a training aid to help the fliers get their routines down faster.
Rainbow began stretching as she watched the other Wonderbolts show up one by one. Luckily, she'd made sure she arrived early to get her warm-ups in and make sure she knew her section of their routine. After she was stretched out, she noticed the entire team had assembled. Spitfire called them to gather around, and the rest of the squad took a knee in front of her.
"Alright, girls, this is the first practice for some of you, and as such you'll be expected to pay attention, make mistakes, and learn from them," she said, looking over her recruits. "You'll go home today bruised and tired. If you don't then you didn't work hard enough!" She stomped a hoof. "Now let's get started."
As the practice wore on, Rainbow discovered that her wingpony for the routine was none other than Firefly. After exchanging glares, they took their starting positions.
"Long time no see, cheater," Rainbow hissed.
Firefly smiled. "All is fair in love and Wonderbolts tryouts. Besides, I'm sure that mouth-breather beau of yours was there to console you after I won."
Willpower alone kept Rainbow from attacking Firefly right then and there. "At least I've got somepony who can stand to be around me for more than a few minutes," she began. At that moment, a uncharacteristically evil thought crept into Rainbow's head. Her conscience warned her uttering the next phrase was not just mean, but downright awful. However, her anger would not be persuaded. "No wonder your brother flew into a thunderstorm. If I were related to you, I'd have done the same thing!"
As soon as the words left her lips, she regretted them. She glanced over at her rival, expecting to see seething hatred or possibly a hoof heading towards her head. Instead, she saw the face of a young filly that had just been devastated by the most hurtful comment she'd ever heard. In an instant, the hardened walls Firefly had built up began to crack.
"Ready!" Spitfire's voice echoed around the stadium.
Rainbow heard a sniffle coming from beside her. The clouds beneath Firefly's hooves began to darken with drops of moisture rolling off her nose.
"Set!"
Rainbow felt terrible. She hadn't meant to hurt her that badly! She just wanted to defend herself, and she was certainly fed up with Firefly's attitude.
"Listen, I didn't—"
"Go!"
They took off before Rainbow had a chance to apologize. Pushing her comment to the back of her mind, she began her routine. Her turns were perfect, her rolls were sharp, and her climbs and descents were crisp. Everything seemed to be going perfectly, until her stunt with her wingpony. The idea was that she and Firefly would fly towards each other and avoid collision at the last second.
Firefly didn't pull up.
Rainbow's head was killing her. Her eyes cracked open, allowing a bright, white light to flood her eyes. She hissed and closed her eyes again, only to hear a familiar voice.
"Look who's awake!" Pinkie squealed happily as Rainbow's eyes adjusted to the light.
"Ugh... sweet Celestia, what happened?" she moaned, rubbing her head.
"You took my speech at the beginning of practice a bit too seriously, Rook," Spitfire said, walking beside her bed. Her friends and coltfriend were gathered around her hospital bed. As her company came into focus, she smiled. She certainly was lucky to have friends that cared enough about her to drop what they were doing and visit her after another in a seemingly endless line of hospital visits.
"Sorry, I don't remember much," Rainbow mumbled.
Spitfire gave a small chuckle. "You and Firefly had quite the spill up there. You were lucky Soarin and I were around to catch the two of you."
"Oh..." Dash said, recalling the events leading up to her collision.
"Where is she? Where's my little bluebird?" Dash heard an unmistakable voice ask frantically from somewhere down the corridor.
Oh boy...
A moment later, her mother burst through the door, concern flashing across her face as she hurried to her daughter's bedside.
"Sorry, Rook. It's protocol to contact your next of kin after any accident requiring hospitalization," Spitfire whispered as she stepped aside. Wave filled the gap she left and hugged her daughter tightly.
"Mom, I'm fine!" Dash protested, her cheeks turning the color of her coltfriend.
"You are now that momma's here!" she sang, finally removing herself from Rainbow. It was only after she pulled herself away that Twilight got a good look at Dash's mother.
"You—you're Wave Function, the head of the theoretical physics department at Canterlot University!" she stammered in girlish excitement.
"Oh!" Wave said, surprised. "It's always nice to meet someone who admires my work."
"Admires?" Twilight repeated, "Your dissertation on the formation of galaxies in the universal structure sparked my interest in astrophysics!" After taming the stars in her eyes, Twilight turned to Rainbow. "How could you not tell me your mother is Wave Function?"
Rainbow sighed. "Because two eggheads in my life would have been unbearable," she muttered.
After a few more minutes of visiting, the doctor entered the room, declaring visiting hours to be over. Spitfire was the last to leave, requesting a prognosis on Dash's condition from a nurse outside her room.
"She'll be back to her old self in a few days. We'd like to monitor her overnight to make sure she doesn't have a concussion, but both pegasi should be back on your squad within the week," she said, looking over the chart from the foot of Rainbow's bed. "With Rainbow, we'll also need to make sure the foal was unharmed during the impact."
Spitfire's ears perked up and her head tilted slightly. "I'm sorry, I must have had some crazy in my ear, because it sounded like you said Rainbow is carrying a foal."
The nurse looked at her and shuffled her papers nervously. "Yes, well that's all the time we have for visiting today!" she said urgently, turning on her heel and heading back to her station.
Spitfire cast one last scrutinizing gaze into Dash's room before leaving.
Rainbow tried to get some rest—but having taken an involuntary five hour nap—sleep wasn't coming as easily as she'd hoped. As she lay in the darkness, she began to hear a faint sobbing. She was fairly certain she was alone in her room, though the noise seemed to be coming from behind a curtain to her left.
Dash figured either a horrible ghost or another pony was behind that curtain, and as she reached her hoof out to rip it back, she prayed it was the latter.
Instead of a wailing banshee, she found Firefly with a bandage wrapped around her head, a bright red spot beginning to seep through the sterile white linens.
"Firefly?" Rainbow asked in a moment of surprise. "Why the heck did you hit me?!" she snapped, regaining her wits.
"I forgot the routine," she replied weakly.
"Horseapples, you did!" Rainbow growled, "why didn't you pull up, you could have killed us both!"
Firefly threw up her hooves and sighed. She knew she wasn't going to get anywhere by denying what she did while she was stuck in the room with the victim of her actions.
"Because... of what you said to me," she managed to utter, no longer the scornful mare Rainbow had first met. Now just a lonely filly laid up in a dingy hospital room.
"Listen... I went too far, I had no right to say that—"
"You're damn right you didn't!"
"Well, what was I supposed to do?" Rainbow shot back. "Sit there and let you insult me?"
Neither said a word as Firefly attempted in vain to wipe away her tears.
"You're lucky," she mumbled.
"What?"
"I said, 'you're lucky'."
Rainbow blinked before turning on her bedside lamp. "Why?"
Firefly turned toward her, her blue mane sticking out in tufts against the bandages. "You think I didn't notice how many ponies came to see you when they found out you'd been hurt?"
Rainbow looked around her nightstand. It was covered in tokens of her friends affections. From cupcakes to slices of apple pie, all the way to an advanced copy of Daring Do and the Royal Ruby. She looked back over to Firefly and noticed her table was bare: not even a 'get well soon' card.
"What? Are you saying you don't have friends?"
"Friends, family, the love of a stallion, I don't have any of those things!" she spat bitterly. "I've been on my own since my brother died, and I've done fine for myself, even made the Wonderbolts, but... sometimes you need to talk to somepony, and when nopony is there, it just..."
"Hurts?" Rainbow completed.
Firefly looked her rival in the eyes. "Yeah."
Another moment of silence entered the room before Rainbow shattered it with the one question she still couldn't answer. "But, why have you been such a jerk to me? I've never done anything to you!"
Firefly's expression seemed to drop even further than it had already. "You were my biggest competition. For years I'd read about how brave and loyal you were in all the newspapers, and how you had the same dream I did," she explained rather calmly. "Once I knew for sure I'd have to go up against you, I knew I'd have to do anything to get under your skin, anything to give myself the edge I'd need to win, because I knew I could never beat you in a one-on-one."
She glanced toward Rainbow, expecting to see a judgmental glare or a smug smile. Instead, she saw sympathy.
"Listen, I don't know what you've had to go through to get here, but you don't know what I went through either. So why don't we agree to start over, and put all our bad feelings behind us?"
Firefly looked at her former rival fondly, extending a hoof to 'bump-on-it.' To her shock, Rainbow pushed her hoof away and leaned over her bedrail and hugged her. After the initial shock, she returned the embrace.
"Sorry, just something my Pop and I used to do when he would make deals with me when I was a filly. We'd hug on it," Rainbow said, breaking the hug and laughing nervously. "I guess it's kinda lame looking back on it..."
"No. It's awesome," Firefly replied.
"You think?"
"Yeah. I could only dream of getting a hug from my father. He wanted a son more than anything, and when my brother was born, he was over the moon. He never got over losing him. Neither did Mom. It was like I just didn't exist."
Rainbow frowned as Firefly recounted the journey that brought her here. In an instant, however, she shifted gears.
"If you don't mind... could you tell me about your father?" Firefly asked. Perhaps there was more to this mare than Rainbow had first thought.
"Sure, but only if you tell me about your brother afterwards, okay?"
They talked quietly for hours into the night, recalling what memories they had of their lost loved ones. As the evening wore on, they soon began laughing with each other, and discovering the interests they both shared. Around two in the morning, Rainbow was fading fast. She felt she had time for one more question that had been bugging her since their accident.
"Hey, kid, how'd you know Mac was my coltfriend?"
"I saw you at the cemetery. I figured you wouldn't be related to an earth pony." Firefly yawned, shifting beneath her blankets as she settled into the lumpy mattress. "Congratulations, by the way."
Rainbow rolled over in the darkness. "For what?"
"Getting pregnant. I could hear the doctor talking about it with Spitfire outside our room. If I'd known I could have hurt your foal by being stupid, I would have never—"
"Don't worry about it. There was no way you could have known," Dash said, though now she was getting a bit worried about her foal's wellbeing.
"Anyway, I hope Spitfire doesn't fire you."
Rainbow gulped. She may as well have gotten the word 'pregnant' tattooed on her forehead.
"Yeah, me too."
The next day, Firefly was taken to have her brain scanned while the doctor came in to perform Rainbow's first checkup on her foal's development.
"Okay, Ms. Rainbow, just take a deep breath for me, and relax." The doctor put his cold stethoscope on various parts of Rainbow's body, listening intently, but for what, she hadn't the slightest clue. After a brief physical exam, he turned his attention to Dash's still un-bumped belly.
"Now, there won't be much to see on this magic ultrasound, but it should give us a good indication of how far along you are," he said, washing his horn at the sink while he readied the spell. He squirted a bit of extremely cold magic conducting jelly onto her stomach and spread it around before casting. A single beam of light shot from his horn onto Dash's belly. On a white screen, a blurry black and white image began to come into focus as the doctor guided his magic beam around her womb.
"Ah! There we are!" the doctor said, locating a small beating mass in the center of a collection of dark blobs. "It's already got a nice, steady heartbeat."
Rainbow stared wide-eyed at the screen, amazed at the first sign that she and Mac were meant to be together. She regretted he wasn't there to see it, but there was always the next visit.
"T-that's my foal?" Rainbow stammered.
"That's right! It's not much to look at now, but in a few months it'll be quite the heavyweight," the doctor laughed.
"When will I know if it's a boy or girl? Or if it's a pegasi or not?" she asked urgently.
"Not for another few months, I'm afraid. However, you may want to consider going on hiatus as far as your Wonderbolts training is concerned."
Rainbow's jaw nearly dropped. She hadn't even performed in her first show yet! "What? Why?" she demanded.
"This collision was pretty nasty; you were fortunate to make it out with only minor injuries," he began, turning off his magical ultrasound spell. "Had she hit you directly in the stomach, I'm afraid this ultrasound might have been a bit... depressing."
Rainbow blinked. "So, you think I should quit until the foal is born?"
"If collisions like this are a regular occurrence, it would needlessly endanger the health of your foal," he added sincerely.
Rainbow sat back on her pillows. "Thanks, doc, you've given me a lot to think about."
"No trouble at all, Ms. Rainbow! We'll schedule your next checkup for the same time next month. Hopefully, next time, you'll arrive under your own power."
Once Rainbow was released from the hospital, she flew back to her house. The doctor had ordered her to stay grounded while she recovered. Upon Rainbow's protest, he offered a compromise: either stay grounded, or wear a large hoofball helmet he had lying around his office for whatever reason.
She chose her dignity. As she made her way back home, she noticed a note taped to her door bearing the Wonderbolts letterhead.
See me ASAP.
-Capt. Spitfire
Rainbow swallowed. If Spitfire had talked to the doctor, then she knew Dash was being released today. It looked like she had no choice but to face the music. Taking a deep breath, Dash lifted off to Cloudsdale.
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Oooh dear. Curse you and cliffhangers!
Buck yeah.
Hurray, New chapter.
Also....
This is a rather interesting one, at that.
So Dash and Firefly made up, yay
But now comes the real drama... Here's to hopimg that it won't be bad
I knew Firefly and Rainbow would become friends, and Rainbow's gonna get fired! Nuuuuuu.
She'll be upset but no way would they fire THE rainbow dash. Right?
Well, it's about time that happened. Rivalry is a fine thing to have, but only when it's a friendly one!!
And now here I am rooting for Firefly to get someone too. I know, it sounds weird, but I just feel sorry
for her. Still, she has made a new friend in Dash, and may be able to use that to get more!!
Well, Spitfire wants to see her?? I don't think she'll get in trouble for being pregnant, it's more likely
that Spitfire is annoyed that Dash didn't inform them, especially after the initiation they went through!!
2.bp.blogspot.com/_HTBEyNzj4MA/Sc4U1MoJpHI/AAAAAAAACGU/u_AbDPjI4F0/s400/drama_llama.jpg
Aaaand shit's about to hit the fan...
Oooh Rainbow, you had to go and hit her with a viscous low blow. And of course you should expect the news about your foal to come out into the open, you just can't hide something that big for much longer.
Either you're missing a line here or you've got an extra indentation. Hopefully the latter, because honestly I think RD needs to mull that over a bit--that's a helluva terrifying prospect for her.
Don't think she will be fired, put on maternity hell yes, but not fired.
I've got a bad feeling about this.
Dash is starting to act a little different however hormones do that.
Well, so much for the Wonderbolts. You're fired.
Pegasus is the singular, Pegasi is the plural. Unless Dash is having twins you have a slight error there.
And the last ball finally drops.
Really glad to see Firefly and Dash make amends.
You typed "wise-eyed". Should be "wide-eyed", no?
no doctor patient confidentiality huh?
1678008 yes it should. it's fixed now, thanks!
Really enjoyed this chapter, but dem cliffhangers... Argh.
Yay Dash and Firely are friends now! But Your CLIFFHANGERS darn it!! Dx
I love your description of the magic ultrasound, what with the magic-conductin jelly and all.
Also, MOARRRR! please.
Stuff to read! Sleep is for the weak!
Another excellent installment. Great to get some backstory about Firefly, and to see her and Rainbow make up.
But of course, as one problem is solved, another appears.
I was about to take a nice long nap when this appeared.
2.bp.blogspot.com/-nxKVFtQuj4k/T11PEoelq0I/AAAAAAAAAfg/kbWwZaoOfRU/s1600/curses.jpg
NOOOOO THE CLIFFHANGERS!! But I'm very glad to see that Firefly and RD made up. I had a feeling it would happen. Good feels, mate. I eagerly anticipate the next installment.
Although I suspected Rainbow Dash and Firefly would make amends and become friends, I sort of enjoyed the contention they shared. It was a good story point. Although, not unlike some others who've already posted, I find myself rooting for Firefly. Great chapter. I'm not feeling entirely positive about Dash's upcoming meeting with Spitfire.
A touching scene with Rainbow and Firefly, I liked that
Thanks to this site that ^ has become a somewhat horrifying phrase for me...
1678509
media-titanium.cursecdn.com/attachments/42/719/634798639221257881.jpg
Well, this is going to be even more interesting. Most good, most good indeed.
Nice to see Dash and Firefly starting over after all this time, but that comment Dash made...ouch...
Anyway, good luck to Dash with dealing with Spitfire...
Spelling mistake spotted: "either stay gorunded, or wear a large hoofball helmet
Bad cliffhanger! No cookie for you!
A note from Spitfire. That was mean Bro(nius). I MUST KNOW WHAT HAPPENS! dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/sillyfilly_Rainbow_Dash.png
The next chapter!
[youtube=3Azz-6oT08c]
The reconciliation seemed abrupt. Though, headbutting someone and then finding out they are preggers would probably make anypony rethink their animosity. Granted, that was pretty viscous of RD.
Well, after little over a week of nothing new from you, this chapter felt like kind of a gyp. Even though I still have yet to read that story The Road Not Traveled, as it is (no disrespect, just haven't made time as it is). I mean, it was good and all, but I felt like more could have been done or done without the drama and more of your theory on Wonderbolts' practices (though might get that in future chapters?), even if I was one of the few (if not only, least to my knowledge) who commented that hadn't forgotten about the upcoming shitstorm that was likely to come between Firefly and Rainbow Dash, when they met again.
Dash's comment was unexpected, dunno if that was due to random mood swing possibly, even if she still wasn't Firefly's biggest fan at that point.
Also, dunno if during the whole hospital scene, after re-reading; we could've gotten a scene between Wave Function and Big Mac, considering that was the first time they met, I believe. See a bit of Rainbow's mother judging her daughter's special somepony, considering he's the dad-to-be and don't think she saw him in like a pic or anything, as far as I can recall anyway. If that isn't to be done sometime later, possibly.
I really felt sorry for Firefly, kinda sucks to know that parents won't be there for you after first child of gender they wanted dies, and gotta grow up faster than you'd have liked. Or that she didn't have anypony else.
Well, at least she has Rainbow Dash now... as a friend. And not sure if I'll get some flack, but I think Dash should lose her job for not telling her employer as soon as she knew (not that Spitfire currently knows that Dash knew before her initiation, if thinking she was careless and trying to get rid of the foal that way, when she drank all that alcohol that night), BUT! Then Firefly/other Wonderbolts and Dash's close friends file a complaint and Spitfire decides to take her back for making a mistake, even though that'd probably be a bit much. However you do it though, I'm sure I won't be disappointed, as hardly ever am with your work. 
Various red and white stripped balloons <------- Should be striped here, I imagine.
Anyway, hope to see a new chapter before long, especially with a clifhanger like this! iambrony.jsmart.web.id/mlp/gif/i__m_not_mad_by_mezkalito4p-d4foapx.gif
1676853
Or would be possible, even.
Well, doubt you meant before (as she didn't know until day after, if you hadn't forgotten), but even so, not like it was high on Dash's list considering she had to figure out what to do among how to supposedly tell ponies that matter (her friends, coltfriend, and employer at that time); even if I doubt in Equestria, such things as abortions would exist.
1678369
Well, the nurse probably assumed Spitfire already knew, and not sure if that only applies to a psychiatric kind of doctor. Even if the doctor who told Dash in first place may have said something about that as well, in an earlier chapter. Also dunno if nurse counts in a doctor-patient confidentiality agreement, yay loopholes!
1687578
Hippa begs to differ
this is why I have to go to a release of information and sign forms whenever I want to know if I am infected with an STD i am testing for. Granted I've only done this once. They explained this was SOP.
Also, my girlfriend is a volunteer at a hospital and is studying for medical school. This was a blatant breach of that confidentiality.
even though he mentioned the pregnancy in passing, he could not give any disclosure to spitfire.
1687609
Okaaaaaaaaaaay... not sure needed to hear about your health history with STD testing, but meh. Never heard of HIPPA before and after skimming it just now, guess I get the gist of it, at least in regards to privacy. Though mind you, not justifying it by saying that hardly anyone was around at the time or Dash or Firefly probably know enough about Equestrian law to file a complaint, not that the nurse would've known that (and I'm guessing Spitfire wouldn't either). Eh, it's kind of a moot point, considering I guess it's how Bronius wanted to do the big reveal, even if I myself hoped Dash would mare up this chapter and tell her new boss about her expecting foal (not sure if horses can carry more than one at a time, probably something need to figure out for stories involving horse pregnancy someday). And not sure if mean she if talking about the nurse this time, or he as in the doctor who originally told Dash in the first place. But again, moot point, so... yeah. dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Fluttershy.png
eh I was splitting some hairs, the doctor just wouldn't be allowed to divulge any details of the pregnancy without a signed release of information from Dash. Sure there was that slip, but it's something the doctor should have cleared the room for before talking to dash about anything. Like I said hair splitting... 1687665
CLIIIIIIIIIFFFFHAAAAANNNNNNGGGEEEEEERRRRRRRRR!
*Smashes desk*
1687578 That's true, she didn't find out till the after. However she was around a month pregnant at the time. I admit, it may be too early on to see if it affected the foal in any way, but do you really think "The" Wonderbolts would put her through an initiation like that if they knew??
That is where my point comes in. Spitfire didn't know, and thus thought it was safe for her to get completely shit faced!!! Which is why I said I don't think she'll be angry at Dash for not telling them, but because of the possible outcomes of the situation!!
And I think that abortion may be available, maybe even legal, in Equestria. I mean, if a woman becomes pregnant after being assaulted, surely it is her choice as to whether she keeps her child or not. Do you really think Celestia would allow her subjects to suffer in that way, either by being a unwanted foal, or by having to go through with something they didn't wish for!!
I've...lost track of my thoughts. Fuck it, I need a drink!!!1678410, which way is it to that bar, you know the one I mean??
And when is it next open??
1688531 reopening soon.
My theory is that spitfire will be pissed at dash for putting the foal in danger
Aparrently Dash and I have a different opinion on what 'dignity' is.
Nooooooooooooooooo DARTH VADER NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Ohhhhh man i was waiting for this and it ends like this
Cool chapter bro
Without a doubt, THE. MOST. SUSPENSEFUL. CLIFFHANGER!
Just read this again and a new question comes to mind: how did you come up with that idea for the stunt Dash and Firefly did? I would think Wonderbolts would have routines that're safer than that, if they're a group of PROFESSIONAL stunt flyers, even if I think all stunts usually have some degree of danger to them (well, more risky ones, anyways). Though I know they probably saw reasoning to pair the pegasi based off experience, what with Firefly and Rainbow being the newest females, but still.
Was gonna initially ask about how Firefly crashed into Dash, but reading it over again, saw it was cause had the stunt with charging at each other until the very last second. Also, didn't seem to correct the suggestion of stripped being 'striped' for balloons instead, cause stripped refers to like bare vehicle or torn metal (from what I know), just saying. But anyway, hoping new chapter comes out soon, once you finish new ones of current works you're doing!
1775005 until the site issues are resolved, I won't be editing anything for fear of losing the chapter to whatever glitch is still out there.
1775041
Well, that's a good point, if you don't have it backed up somewhere or don't copy/paste it now (don't know why you wouldn't). Though didn't really need to (even if think it's the right one), was just saying again...
Oh damn...
