A Fearful Stroll Down Thunder's Lane

   "Lightning! Come on, Dusty, wake up!" Rainbow Blitz desperately shook the dying mare's shoulder. She didn't respond. More and more blood poured from her wounds. Tears were pouring from Rainbow Blitz's eyes. He didn't know what to do or where to go. His light's light was fading, and he was too distraught to think. He wasn't going to be able to save Lightning Dust, and had no choice but to watch her die.

   Rainbow Blitz shook his head violently. Get yourself together! the Colombia blue stallion commanded himself, furious at his own thoughts. There's still time! Get her to Ponyville Urgent Care! Thinking fast, he scooped Lightning's bloody form in his forehooves, electing a small moan of pain from the unconscious Pegasus. Flapping his wings, he shot like a bullet from a rifle towards the hospital. "Hold on, baby," Blitz murmured to Lightning. "I'll keep you alive."

   Darting past any equine that obstructed him - from Unicorn stallions to Earth Pony fillies - Rainbow refused to let anything get in his way. Lightning Dust needed him right now.

   Within seconds, the looming medical center was within sight. Blitz came to an abrupt halt outside the door, pushing his way through with his head. Dropping Lightning on the floor, he raised his head up.

   "She's dying!" He cried out. He didn't need to say anymore. Within seconds, Dust was raised onto a cot against her unconscious protests and wheeled into a room. Rainbow Blitz stared at the place where she disappeared, a lump rising in his throat. Salty drops of water continued to flow down his cheeks as he sat in one of the waiting chairs.

Why? he thought. Why did this have to happen? Answer me, Celestia. Why? Rainbow buried his face in his hooves and sobbed, ignoring the five pairs of eyes trained onto him. Let them think what they wanted. His marefriend was on the brink of death. He didn't care about anypony or anything else right now.

   "Mr. Blitz?" a marine-colored nurse bearing a Cutie Mark of a roll of gauze poked her head through the doorway. Said stallion looked up from the floor tiredly, staring blankly at the mare. "Mm?"

  "Lightning Dust is awake, and she wishes to see you," the nurse murmured. "She doesn't look too good, but she managed to regain consciousness when we were through with our medical procedures. However..." She looked away. "She has sustained a permanent injury." She beckoned for Rainbow to follow her, then turned and headed for Lightning's room with a blue Pegasus trailing behind her, filled with a renewed uneasiness.

  They pushed through some double doors with the words Room 114 engraved into the area above it. Inside the bleach-white room lay Lightning Dust. Rainbow Blitz gasped at what he saw. Crimson-stained bandages covered Lightning's midsection and head, while a small oxygen mask hooked up to a supply and a respirator kept her breathing and monitored it. A heart monitor sat next to the respirator, keeping track of her heartbeat. Tears trickled down her face. But what shocked Rainbow even more even more than anything, more than the bandages, more than the machines, and more than her tears, was the thing causing those tears.

   Lightning's wings were gone.

   Not a single feather poked through her bandages, let alone an entire appendage. They had been cut so close to the base that there were hardly even stumps protruding from her body. Rainbow Blitz couldn't even see anything against the gauze. The nurse, noticing his stupefied expression and stare, explained.

   "We couldn't save her wing," she told him sadly. "Too much had been severed. We cut off her other wing, so she might be labeled as an Earth Pony from now on, but she will never fly again."

   "B-but it wasn't her whole wing!" Rainbow stuttered. "C-couldn't you have...?" His voice trailed off as the nurse shook her head. "Many of the nerves and tendons were broken beyond repair," she sighed. "Whoever cut her wing was very clumsy in their work, and mangled everything they severed." Turning away from Rainbow Blitz, she called out to the sobbing mare. "Lightning? Somepony's here to see you."

   Lightning Dust slowly turned her head in their direction. Her gaze was filled with anguish, her eyes bluntly focused. Tears blurred her vision, and her voice was raspy when she called out, "What?"

   "I said, somepony's here to see you." She let Rainbow Blitz dash for Lightning Dust, coming to a halt at her bedside. "L-lightning?" He choked out. Lightning bought a hoof to her face, vainly attempting to mask her tears. Rainbow gripped her other hoof, tightening his grip with every passing second. "D-did they really t-take off your wings?" His voice broke. Lightning nodded, filled with grief for herself. Not pity, but simply grief. A dark, depressing, choking grief.

   Rainbow's own tears forced their way out of his eyes despite his effort to keep them inside.  "I'm so, so sorry," he whispered. "If I'd just been there sooner, I could've...could've..."

   Rainbow Blitz could take no more. He collapsed on top of Lightning, burying his head into the area directly above her bandaged body, sobbing into her chest and soaking her fur. "It's all my fault!" He whinnied. "It's all my Celestia-damned fault!"

   The nurse hurriedly pulled Rainbow Blitz off of the now-shocked Lightning, having to keep weight off of her chest so she could breathe properly. "Be careful!" she warned as Blitz fell backwards. Ignoring everything that happened around him, Rainbow continued to openly sob. "I'll never forgive myself for this!" He cried.

   Lightning reached a hoof out. She could feel herself fading, and needed to say this before it got into Blitz's head. If he honestly thought this, he could only get worse than she was without reassurance.

   "Rainbow," she rasped, her voice still mysteriously hoarse. Almost ashamed to even be with her now, Rainbow slowly looked up, just bringing himself to stare Lghtning in the face. She gazed at him with ever-closing eyes. Her hoof began to droop. "It's not...your...fault," Lightning sighed, before her eyes closed and her hoof dropped.

   Rainbow gasped. "Lightning!" He galloped forward, but was stopped by the nurse.

   "It's okay, sir!" The nurse assured him. "She is merely unconscious." She pressed a small button, then said into some sort of intercom, "Patient Lightning Sleekfeather Dust has fallen mysteriously unconscious in Room One-fourteen. E.D.C.T. Two, please report to Room One-fourteen." She removed her hoof from the button and turned back towards a sobbing, out-of-it, curious Rainbow Blitz.

   "E.D.C.T.?" He asked.

   "Equinal Distress Correction Team," the nurse answered matter-of-factly. "Speaking of, you'll have to leave so they can investigate." As if on cue, a team of four burst through the double doors, one of them a Unicorn holding a defibrilation machine with her magic. Three nearly trampled Blitz, but he spun away at the last second, his multicolored locks blowing into his face.

   Turning away from the team as they checked Lightning's heart, Rainbow Blitz turned and plodded out of the hospital. Who should he tell first? No matter who he told, they were going to cry. It came down to a very tough decision between Lightning's mom and Rainbow Dash. In the end, though, he decided on the mare closest to Lightning Dust and the one who was always there for her.

   Rainbow Dash.