127 Pets

The next day

Rainbow hadn't slept at all. She's been awake all night, too dehydrated or too in pain for sleep. This was it; she was just mere hours from death. Rainbow stared down at the boulder, her wing purple and her face pale. Whenever she would move around, her muscles would only cause late responses. Rainbow's lower body was figuratively dead, and the ache in her neck wouldn't stop.

But after such a long wait, after being pinned down in the depths of Ghastly Gorge for over five days, something in her foggy brain kicked in. There was nothing more powerful than the will to live.

Rainbow shakily grabbed the strong, rubber rope. She tied it tightly to the upper part of her dead wing. So tight till she felt the numbness in her muscles and she couldn't pull anymore.

Rainbow got up, bending her body to one side as her wing bend the opposite way. Her breaths became short and low as she put pressure on her wing, twisting it with most of the strength she had left. In a lightning fast second, a painful snap whipped through her body. Rainbow fell over, panting heavily.

She lay there for a few agonizing seconds, before getting back up. Rainbow slowly felt her wing; it felt like mush. After clearing her eyes, Rainbow shook her head.

She had just broken a bone, but only one out of the two.

Rainbow, while struggling, went back to her twisting position. Putting pressure on her grounded wing, Rainbow pulled. She gritted her teeth, putting all of her might into it. This last bone was harder than the previous one.

"Grrrrr," she began grunting quietly. After the painful moment, another even more painful moment snapped. The last bone in her wing broke, causing a ringing feel through her flanks.

Rainbow shook her head violently. "GAH, HAHA, HAHAHAHA," she screamed, trying to substitute the pain with laughter. Only half of it worked.

After feeling her wing, Rainbow grabbed the now sharp knife. She placed the wooden handle of the tool in her mouth, ignoring the mucus which accumulated in her saliva.

She brought the blade close to the rotten flesh of her wing, the tip just touching it. She turned the knife, roughly sliding it across the skin, causing a thin, red opening.

Rainbow sucked on her teeth, letting out moans of disturbance. All Rainbow could do was mumble to herself, every once in a while clenching her eyes close. She buried the knife into the wing, feeling the strings of muscle being wounded.

She lightly whipped out the blade, a small puddle of dark blood formed underneath the wing. "Oh, come on." Rainbow had blood on her mouth, sucking some of it off her wing to keep hydration.

Minutes felt like hours, and hours felt like days. Rainbow just stayed there, cutting away at the dull skin and feather of her pinned wing. Every few minutes, she would dig her muzzle at the growing wound, pulling out pieces of flesh that hung loosely. While it felt like her wings were burning, she learned to ease down the pain. A mixture of blood and drool dripped down her chin, digging her hooves in to remove any dead string of muscle.

Noticing her wing was getting lighter, Rainbow reached for the rubber string, pulling on it even tighter than before.

After a few more minutes of digging deep, Rainbow noticed a white, thin string visible inside her wing. It looked like dental floss, though a bit darker. She brought the tip of her knife close to the thin strand of possible flesh. The moment the metal of the blade hit the white string, an extremely loud buzzing noise shot through Rainbow's ears, almost causing her to go deaf. She flung back, nearly dropping the knife as she screamed in pain.

Rainbow had just touched a nerve, a very sensitive part of the body. Her teeth clenched together so tightly, they looked as if they were about to break.

With weak eyes, Rainbow lowered a hoof back to the thin nerve. The moment she pulled on it, her entire body gave a short spasm. The buzzing in her ears was just as loud as before and it lasted several seconds longer.

Time seemed to slow down as Rainbow tried again to pull off the nerve. It was the only way to cut through the rest of the skin. Minutes upon minutes went by, Rainbow nearly passing out after each try. She screamed, and whimpered, and almost gave up.

She brought her shaky knife back to the undamaged nerve. Sweat shot out of the back of her neck. Her breathing was too ragged to be normal, and in one quick swoop. Rainbow brought the blade down hard.

The knife slashed through the nerve, and Rainbow screamed louder than she has ever had in her life. The constant buzzing in her head nearly killed her. Everything seemed to get darker.

Rainbow had a terrible expression. Drool kept pouring out of her mouth as black blood stained her teeth. The moment she was about to pass about, she slapped herself hard, trying to stay awake. If she dropped now, she would die.

Rainbow began to cry, though without any actual tears coming through her eyes. Her breathing became desperate as she slowly got back up.

With a hint of courage left in her, Rainbow growled. She went back to cutting through the skin. "Don't pass out Rainbow Dash. Do not pass out." Only she could encourage herself to keep going.

Many more horrible minutes flew by. Rainbow yelled, grunted, growled, begged and at some points, nearly stopped breathing. All she did was stab and jab, cutting and slicing. Every strand of muscle ripped to the side, blood dried up everywhere in the area.

After a few more moments of pain, Rainbow gave one final cut, ripping her wing off completely. Rainbow fell back, breathing heavily as she looked up to the sky. Her head slowly looked forward, seeing a boulder on top of a dead piece of feathery flesh.

She made her way to the grey bag, wrapping it around her amputated area. Rainbow grabbed all of her stuff, though this process took a few more minutes.

Then, she walked out of the crevice. With a wrapped up stub on her side and only walking on three weak legs, Rainbow wasn't sure if she was going to make it very far.

--

Eventually, she made it out of the collapsed walls. Standing on a rocky hill, Rainbow looked beyond the setting sun. She hadn't seen it for so long, her mouth was shaking.

The dehydrated pegasus found a dirty puddle of water on the ground. Being in her state, Rainbow dug her face in it, absorbing the filthy water down her throat. After many stumbles, she finally tries to make it back to Ponyville.