At The Weakest

Soarin was still sick three days later. He felt weak. It was hard to lift a hoof. He still had a fever, and his cough wasn't relenting. He slept all through the day.

Twilight and Nurse Redheart had examined him, and prescribed an antibiotic. Redheart said that if Soarin wasn't on the road to recovery in two more days, she was going to have to hospitalize him.

Rainbow Dash had been working hard at finding Soarin's medical records. She'd contacted another lawyer who she hoped knew Soarin's parents. His name was in Soarin's contact list.

However, Soarin's parents weren't. Soarin had been slightly delirious and out of it from the fever, so she couldn't ask him and expect to get legitimate information.

The lawyer had given her the number of a doctor who knew Soarin's parents, but wasn't Soarin's doctor.

Dash had called him and gotten the names and numbers of Soarin's parents. Finally she was able to contact them.

Dash had explained the situation, and they'd promised hastily to get the medical records and mail them.

Once Dash had completed this task, she'd reported back to Twilight, who would be sent the records in a few days time.

When Dash wasn't trying to track down all these people and numbers, she'd hardly left Soarin's side. She'd pulled the curtains closed, and even put blankets over the windows, so that the bright rays of streaming sunlight wouldn't be in Soarin's eyes. He'd managed to murmur that he had a headache and the light made it worse, so she'd done all she could to bring him comfort. She placed a cool cloth on his head, and brought him some of Fluttershy's warm soup. She made sure he had enough blankets, and when he still shivered from the cold and fever, Dash would lean up against him to warm him with the heat of her body.

"Thank you." Soarin managed after Dash settled next to him.

She kissed his burning cheek. "You're welcome, Soarin." She watched him close his eyes and sigh.

"I hate being sick." He murmured.

"I know." Dash said, looking at him sympathetically. "But we're gonna try to get you feeling better soon."

Soarin sighed uneasily. She was doing all of this to make him feel better. Being so nice to him. Soarin hadn't told her yet, but he loved her. He knew that he should tell her soon, but what if she didn't feel the same way? It would ruin the relationship. And Soarin didn't want that.

But what if she did feel the same? Then they could become boyfriend and girlfriend.

Soarin decided that he would take the chance. Soon.

That night, Dash woke up around two forty-five in the morning to her alarm. She needed to take Soarin his medication. Flying out of her house into the night air, she pondered her relationship with Soarin.

They weren't 'together', but when other ponies weren't around, sometimes he would reach for her hoof and hold it in his. He'd never said 'I Love You' though. And that was what made her wonder.

Rainbow reached the door to his office and knocked softly before entering.

Soarin was asleep under the blankets and the light coming in from the open window cast a white shade over his body.

Dash hated to wake him, especially when he was this sick, but it was for his own good.

"Soarin.." Rainbow said, nudging his head with her left hoof. "Soarin... Wake up."

Dash walked over to the light switch and flicked it on. Turning back to Soarin, she realized that the outside light wasn't turning his body white. He was white!  Maybe whiter than snow! Pale with just twinges of red! "Soarin!" Dash shouted, shaking him. But he didn't move.

Dash immediately ran to the phone and called Twilight.

Walking back to Soarin, she realized he wasn't breathing. "Soarin!" She shouted again before taking a deep breath and pressing her lips to his, exhaling slowly. She repeated this five times before Soarin began violently coughing.

Just then Dash heard a siren approaching and Twilight rushed in, an ambulance pulling in front of the office.

After that, all that happened was a blur in Rainbow's memory. Nurse Redheart had gotten Soarin into the ambulance, then asked Dash questions as they flew behind it and to the clinic.

Now at 3:45, Dash found herself in the waiting room. She'd been there for half an hour, and the tension and anxiety was building in her stomach, making it hard to breathe. She wondered why she felt this way about him. Earlier she'd wondered if he would ever say 'I Love You'. But maybe she had to say it first. Did she mean it though? Did she truly feel that way about him? ...Yes.

She did.

She did love him.

Suddenly the tension melted away and she felt happiness. A giddy excitement. She wanted to tell him that she loved him. Thinking about it, she loved everything about him. The strong and powerful stallion, but in contrast, the gentleness of the way he'd hold her hoof with his.

The way he could be joking at times and brighten her day, or be the comforting flank to lean on when she needed it.

However, she was brought out of her thoughts when Twilight appeared in the doorway between the pale green, swinging door panels.

She walked over to her, her face solemn. Meanwhile at the doors stood Nurse Redheart.

Dash hated that look on anypony's face. It never meant good news. The same look on the Twilights face in Coltlifornia a few years ago, when that doctor had given her the news of her father's cancer.

The look on the face of a doctor a few years before that when she's been told of her younger brother's systematic disease.

That look never meant anything good.

She waited in silence while Twilight walked beside her.

She took a deep breath. "Well, he's stable." Twilight started. "Breathing steady, Heart rate good..." Her voice trailed off. "...But I need those medical records, Rainbow Dash. Soon."

"Twilight, what's wrong with him?" Dash asked in desperation. "What is going on?"

Twlight looked at her tentatively. "... I don't want to scare you."

"You're scaring me by not telling me!" Dash blurted.

Twilight took another breath. "He's showing all the symptoms of... An stomach deterioration."

Rainbow's jaw dropped. Stomach Deterioration Disease only happened to elderly ponies! How could Soarin have it? He was young. healthy. There was no way!

She looked back at Twilight. "How?" She asked.

"I don't know." She replied, looking at the ground. "I need his records first. If his medical history is consistent with the theory, if he's had stomach troubles before, especially around the first five years, then it'll be correct."

"What's the cure?" Dash asked, inwardly panicking.

Twilights expression became pained. "Rainbow Dash, as far as we know... There's not one. He'll recover... Or He's going to die."

Dash and Twilight made an agreement. Until they were sure that that was what was wrong with Soarin, they wouldn't tell him. It wouldn't be good for him to worry. It'd take him longer to recover from his sickness.

Dash sat in his hospital room with him every day for the next week. During the day, she'd try her hardest to make sure he was comfortable. And at night she never left his side. Twilight had assured her that even if there was a deterioration happening, he wasn't showing the severe signs, meaning he still had a few months. Possibly even years.

Twilight spent every available moment during the next week searching for books and racking brain for some cure.

She hadn't liked Soarin when he first came to town, but now she thought of him as a friend. And to lose him... Twilight hated the thought. It seemed so terrible that someone so young could have this disease. Soarin was only twenty-six. He was too young for this fate.

Twilight just held on to the hope that the medical records would come through and Soarin would be alright.