The Reception

by sister_mike

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Rainbow Dash

Rainbow Dash groaned. Her right wing was throbbing painfully right in the middle. Tears automatically sprung to her eyes from the pain, even though she was just waking up. She couldn't quite fully remember what had happened. She recalled Princess Celestia sneaking up behind Luna and the two of them beginning to battle. Twilight shouted out to Luna, which had caught Chrysalis's attention. Chrysalis began walking towards them, saying something about them disappearing. Rainbow Dash hadn't been listening. Her loyalty senses had kicked in and she jumped in the air and had begun to fly towards Luna's aid.

And then everything flashed brightly for a second and then went dark. And now, here she was—wherever "here" may be—with a terrible throb pulsing through her wing.

Rainbow Dash slowly opened her eyes. She was up high somewhere. From a glance at the shingles around her, she figured she was on the roof of the palace. How she got up here, she didn't know or care—all she cared about was the tremendous pain in her wing.

She tried to sit up, but couldn't sit up fully. She was leaning towards the right. Her wing wouldn't get off of the roof. Wincing as she looked over, Rainbow Dash—as tough as she was—tried not to throw up at what she saw. Somehow, she had pinned her wing to the roof. A sharp metal weathervane poked straight out the middle of her wing, a red ring of blood pooling around it.

Rainbow Dash bit back more tears. How long had she been up here? How long had her wing been pinned like this, causing her to lose blood? Now that she was awake and thought about it, she did feel a little weak. How much blood had she lost?

"Rainbow Dash!"

Someone whispered her name loudly from below. Rainbow Dash carefully manoeuvred herself so she could peer over the edge. She wasn't up very high—she was facing the back side of the castle and the ground was only a few feet below, so she was probably over a covered exit area or above the first-floor servants quarters—but she was up high enough that a jump down would hurt her legs.

Applejack stood below her, looking around hastily as she called her name as loud as she dared. Rainbow Dash waved.

"Are you ok up there?" Applejack asked.

"No—my wing is pinned through a weathervane," Rainbow Dash said. She vainly hoped Applejack couldn't see her tears. "I can't fly. And I don't think I can free my wing on my own—it's at a weird angle."

"Ok; hold on a sec. Big Mac is trying to figure out a way to get me up there," Applejack said. Applejack then said something Rainbow Dash couldn't hear to somepony out of her sight. Probably Big Mac.

Rainbow Dash looked around as she waited for Applejack. She could hear some faint commotion coming from the front of the palace—reason enough for Applejack to look panicked while calling out to Rainbow Dash—and she had a clear view of the labyrinth off to her right. It looked as though there were ponies gathering there. The army Luna spoke of perhaps?

"Rainbow," Applejack shout-whispered again. Rainbow Dash looked over the edge again. "We have an idea of how to get up—but you're not going to like it."

"Uh oh; what?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Big Mac is going to boost me up part of the way; then I'm going to throw a lasso around the weathervane you're stuck to and pull myself up the rest of the way. It'll be painful for y'ah Dash, but it's the only way I can get up there and help," Applejack said.

Rainbow Dash groaned. Applejack had been right—she didn't like the plan. But she needed help, otherwise she'd be trapped up here forever.

"Alright; get on with it," Rainbow Dash said. She moved away from the edge and waited.

The rope flew up a couple of times and missed. Rainbow Dash tried to help secure it to the weathervane, but was having difficulty maneuvering with her limited movement span. Finally, Applejack secured the rope and pulled on it. It hurt like hell.

Rainbow Dash grit her teeth and failed to keep back tears as Applejack climbed her way up to the roof. As soon as Applejack had a steady footing on the slightly slanted roof, she let go of the rope. Rainbow Dash exhaled loudly at the relief of the pressure.

"What happened? Do you remember?" Rainbow Dash asked, as Applejack ran over to inspect her wing.

"Chrysalis began to approach us n' her horn was glowin' green. Then there was a warm flash of light and I ended up in one of the towers, completely unharmed, Element necklace still attached. I ran down the stairs and next thing I knew, I found Big Mac. He said somethin' about an army gatherin' in the labyrinth; we were on our way when Big Mac spotted you up here, unconscious. We've been callin' at y'ah for the past twenty minutes," Applejack whispered.

"Do you know where the others are?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Applejack shook her head. "No. Hopefully they'll be in the labyrinth with the gatherin' army. If we're ok, I reckon their ok too."

"Um, I'm not exactly ok," Rainbow Dash scoffed. She winced as Applejack lightly touched her wing.

"I realize that; I just meant that we're not dead," Applejack said, "Now just give me a second. I'm going to have to pull your wing through the weathervane. You're lucky it's not an extremely tall one. You're going to have to stand as I get near the top."

Rainbow Dash nodded and took a deep breath. She braced herself for the pain.

Applejack slowly began to push Rainbow Dash's wing up through the vane. Rainbow Dash couldn't help but cry out loudly from the pain. Applejack stopped and hesitated, glancing around to see if anyone had heard them. When no changelings came barreling over to attack them, she continued to push the wing up. Rainbow Dash stood as the wing came closer to the top.

"Wait!" Rainbow Dash suddenly hissed, "How are we supposed to get it over the top? There are four different poles protruding from the top, pointing in the four directions!"

Applejack paused and cocked her head to the side.

"How in the hay did you get your wing caught in here in the first place? And without creating a big mess? The hole in your wing is only as wide as the main pole," Applejack said. She scratched her head with her free foreleg.

"It doesn't matter how I got it in there, what matters is how we get it out," Rainbow Dash hissed.

"Ok, hold on; let's think of somethin'," Applejack said.

Rainbow Dash sighed. She already knew what they would have to do.

"We're going to have to break it somewhere so I can slip my wing out through the bottom," she said quietly. "How strong do you think this metal is?"

"Brace yourself," Applejack said. She pushed and leaned against the pole, testing its strength. Rainbow Dash winced, and bit down on her bottom lip hard. "It's not that bad; it's kinda old and rusty. A strong buck or two and it should knock over. I'm going to have to put your wing back down to the bottom."

Rainbow Dash nodded and wept in pain as Applejack carefully slid her wing back down the pole. Once it was at the bottom, Rainbow Dash ground her teeth together in preparation. She nodded to Applejack when she was ready. Applejack nodded back and began to kick at the pole.

Each kick was painful. The pole rubbed on the inside of Rainbow Dash's wound. Luckily, it only took three strong kicks before the pole snapped in half and fell over. Applejack swiftly pulled Rainbow Dash's wing out of the pole. She then whipped out a bandage from her bag and wrapped it tightly around her wing.

"I'm not too good with healin' and stuff," Applejack said, as she tied a knot in the bandage, "but hopefully this'll be good for now."

"Derpy's surprisingly good at this stuff," Rainbow Dash said, "Maybe she'll be with the group in the labyrinth and she can fix it. Thanks Applejack."

"Come on. I can lower you down usin' the rope, and then I'll rappel myself down," Applejack said.

"I can get down myself," Rainbow Dash said. She stood, but winced in pain as she did so. Every movement hurt her wing.

"You're hurt bad Rainbow. This is no time to feed your ego. Let your pride go and let me lower you down. Big Mac will untie you at the bottom, I'll climb down and then we can go meet up with that army in the labyrinth. With any luck, the other four will be in there and we'll be back on our way to defeatin' Chrysalis," Applejack said.

Rainbow Dash sighed and nodded. Applejack was right. She needed to let her pride go. Be patient. Rainbow Dash wondered if her other friends still heard Celestia's words from nearly 24 hours ago.

"You're right Applejack," Rainbow Dash said finally. "Ok, tie me up and lower me down. Let's go meet up with that army."

Comments

[sister_mike]

Shorter chapter than the rest and shorter than I would have liked, but I can't go overexerting Rainbow Dash in her condition right now!

[RetroDash]

No RD the best as been slowed to a crawl. I guess I can wait to see Dash's awesome-ness.

[Sunset_Shimmer83]

poor RD, that has to be one of the worst things to happen to a pegasus, a hurt wing.
will Rainbow dash find any surviving wonderbolts in the army, like say Spitfire?

[mbpony 512]

Better to have a broken wing, than it is to be dead. Rainbow Dash should truly count herself lucky in this adventure.

[Cynderfall]

Poor Scootaloo...

[Corundum]

Ragamuffin

[MarcusAustralius]

Gonna guess this is what happens when a teleport goes awry. Lucky she wasn't a foot or so to the right