Rainbows and Magic

“YES!” Twilight exclaimed. She was floating and flying around , almost hovering, but she had no wings.

“Finally! Now I can make ponies fly without wings!” she exclaimed again. She had figured out a way to lift ponies with her Levitation now, it was a lot harder and not nearly as agile in the air as a pegasus but it was a start. She gave herself a burst of magic to send herself higher into the air to look at ponyville, but before she reached the altitude she desired she felt an impact that hit her like a truck. She was out cold instantly, didn't even feel the pain.

“Come on Dash...you got this!” Rainbow Dash growled to herself as she hovered low in the sky. She had been trying for hours to get her Sonic Rainboom to work again, but to no avail. She had finally figured out how to do it regularly, she just couldn't gather enough speed by the time the sound barrier pushed her back.

“I only got one more in me, C'mon Dash!” she yelled and shot forward as fast as her wings could take her. As she felt the sound barrier bending in front of her, she realized she wasn't going fast enough again. Determined to finally achieve her goal, she put on a last ditch burst of speed.

She would have yelled out in joy as the barrier broke around her, but she suddenly saw a flash of Lavender and felt a jarring pain all over her body. She slowed to a much slower speed, but still fast enough for it to hurt when she smashed into the ground.

She groaned as she sat up, shaking the daze from her head.

“What the buck was that?” she asked herself. She looked at her hoof and saw red, it was blood. Terrified, she quickly looked herself over and found a bit more...but it wasn't her own. Dash looked around and recognized that she was in a field just outside of Ponyville. She locked her gaze on the huge skid mark indented into the earth where she slid, she saw a second one branch off right at the end.

Following it, she saw a splatter of blood that lead up to a colorful form. She froze as she recognized the flash of Lavender she saw, or rather crashed into. It was Twilight Sparkle. She quickly rushed over, ignoring a bruised leg, and looked the unicorn over.

A leg looked sprained but luckily not broken, blood was spilling from her nose and mouth. Oh no, that means a rib or two must have broken and punctured something. Her gaze froze as she saw Twilight's horn. Three quarters of it were missing. She suddenly became away of a round bruise on her chest, she poked at it with a hoof and realized it was the same size as said horn.

“T-Twilight?!” Dash yelled. No response, knocked out cold. “J-just hang in there Twi...I'll get you safe!” she said, more to reassure herself than anything.

Fluttering her wings to make sure they worked right, they did, Dash put the light Unicorn on her back and took to the air. She sped towards Ponyville, aiming straight for the Hospital.

“I've got a terrible feeling all of a sudden...” Nurse Red Heart said lowly as she sat next to her assistant at the Hospital.

“Like the kind of terrible feeling you get after you eat too much? Or the kind of terrible feeling that I should be concerned about...” First Aid asked.

“The Latter...” Red Heart replied.

“Last time you had that feeling somepony burst in here with a broken wing...” First Aid said lowly. As if on Que, Dash burst in and skid a few feet.

“P-Please help!” she exclaimed, tears pouring down her face as she showed Twilight to the two Nurses.

“Oh Hell...” Red Heart muttered as she vaulted over the table.

Five minutes later, Red Heart and two doctors had Twilight in another room while First Aid was looking over Dash.

“Now Rainbow Dash...tell me what happened please.” the Yellow Mare said soothingly to the still sobbing Pegasus.

“I-I don't know...I w-was practicing...I finally figured out how to do the sonic rainboom again!...b-but when I finally managed to do it, I-I hit something...I hit the ground a-and I looked around and saw Twi lying there unconscious...oh Celestia there was blood coming out of her nose and her m-mouth a-and it's because I hit her!” Dash said, tears coming back in full force.

“It wasn't your fault Rainbow Dash. It was just an accident, you couldn't possibly have known she was there when you were going so fast.” First Aid said, trying to soothe the shocked Pegasus.

“I DON'T CARE IF IT WAS AN ACCIDENT I STILL NEARLY KILLED MY BEST FRIEND!” Dash yelled. First Aid, startled by the sudden outburst, backed away a few steps. Dash was breathing heavily, nearly hyperventilating, as the Nurse stepped back next to the Pegasus.

“I'm not going to start this with you Dash...just know that the Twilight Sparkle I know wouldn't blame you and that she'd forgive you.” the Nurse said.

“I know she would...but that doesn't help me at all...” Dash said weakly.

“What's this? Did you hit a rock?” Aid asked after a moment of silence, indicating the small round bruise on Dash's chest. Dash looked down. When she remembered what it was from she gasped and put her hooves to her mouth.

“Oh...Oh Celestia...I think when I smashed into her, I hit her horn and...and...and it shattered...” Dash said, mortified. “S-She'd hate me if she can't use magic because of me!” she sobbed.

“Alright Dash, stop it right now...Twilight Sparkle wouldn't hate somepony because of something not under their control!” Aid snapped. “I know you feel really guilty, but there is nothing you could have done! It's not your fault, not in the least!” Aid huffed.

Dash just kind of looked at the Nurse for a moment before drooping her head and sighing.

“You're right...thanks Nurse...but I can't agree with that last part...even though it's an accident, it's still my fault...” Dash said lowly.

“Argh you're impossible...” Aid grumbled. Dash's gaze snapped to Nurse Red Heart, who had just walked through the door.

“She's Fine. Well, as fine as one in her situation can be. Her leg isn't Broken or Sprained, just dislocated but it's fine now. We stopped the bleeding from her nose and the blood from her mouth was coming from inside of her body. She has one broken and one fractured rib, luckily they didn't puncture her lungs...though it came close. Lastly, her horn is Broken off cleanly and won't cause any additional harm. If nothing else happens unexpectedly, she should be well enough to return home under supervision in three days. She should wake up between two days from now and then.” Red Heart said before Dash could ask.

“Will...Will her horn grow back?” Rainbow asked.

“Sorry Rainbow but that's one thing I don't know...we've never had a Unicorn Doctor here and we're only taught the anatomy...” the nurse replied apologetically. Dash sighed.

“You're going to have to stay here overnight by the way, you have fractured ribs yourself, though the fractures are only hairline fractures they're still serious.” First Aid said as she got out a roll of bandages.

“If I have to stay overnight then I want to be in the same room as Twilight.” Dash said, it sounded like a demand, as Aid began wrapping her abdomen with the bandages.

“That shouldn't be a problem, though don't beat yourself up when you see her...trust me when I say she looks so much worse than it actually is.” Red Heart said as she pushed Dash, who she had pushed into a wheel chair, into a room. There was a constant beep sounding through the room, she hated that sound. But right now, she was never in her life more glad to hear the sound of a steady heart beat on a heart rate monitor...it meant Twilight was alive and well.

She froze when she saw Twilight. She clearly had a black eye, her lip had a scabbed cut on it and there was a bit of dried blood under her nose. There were bandages around her head and her right foreleg, as well as her abdomen.

“Luckily when her rib broke, it simply broke instead of poking in or out. It could have damaged the lungs or another organ, or went out and poked through her chest...she is a bit bruised up but not as much as you.” Red Heart said, snapping Dash out of her mini trance.

Now that she was looking, she saw that some of the injuries looked very minor. But she looked at the odd stump on her forehead that used to be her horn. What used to be nearly a foot in length barely topped three inches. Looking at the thing you would the stump of a tree, she saw something she wasn't expecting. Well she didn't know what to expect, but what she saw surprised her a bit more than something else would have. The inside of the horn looked almost like glass with a thin shell of the bone-like around it.

“We think the exterior of the horn is made of a very strong and thick bone, like what makes up the skull. We think the interior, that glassy stuff, is pure solidified magic...we don't know how we would tell but that's what makes the most sense.” Red Heart continued as she had Dash get into the bed a few feet away from Twilight's.

“I-I see. Hey um...what about everypony else?” Dash said.

“You can go and tell your friends tomorrow, you'll be free to go by then. Just make sure you only come visit during visiting hours.” Aid said.

“R-Right...” Dash replied.

“Well...if you need anything just ask,” Red Heart said.

“Um...do you have any books here? I'd ask for something on Daring Do again...but uh...I finished the series...” Dash said rubbing the back of her head.

“Oh that's right, you secretly love to read. I might know something you might like.” Red Heart said as the two left. Red Heart came back with a red book. It had a black dragon wrapped around a circle that had a Navy Frigate on it.

“His Majesty's Dragon? Temeraire?” Dash said inquisitively.

“It Takes place in an alternate reality back a few hundred years in Equestrian history way before electricity and stuff like that. It's about the time of the Napoleonic war between the Fancies and the Trottinghamians. It's really good and full of action.” the Nurse explained.

“Huh...” Dash said as she read the back. It didn't seem very appealing to her adventurous tastes but she decided to give it a try.

“Thanks Nurse Red Heart...” Dash said as she opened the book.

“No problem. Get some rest, and press the button if something happens.” the Nurse said. Dash nodded in response and the Nurse left.