She wished that the phone would shut up. Its incessant ring ring ringing banged her eardrums, the mare wanting so badly to throw her pillow over her head, clench her ears with her hooves, and lie face down so she wouldn't be able to see it if it suddenly sprouted legs and showed up next to her bedside. She hated that phone. She wished it would stop ringing. Its annoying chirp reverberated through her head, finding small crevices along her brain and nestling themselves inside them where she would never be able to find them. Geez, her head really hurt. It felt as if her brain itself was pulsating with each waking second, as if it didn't do it for that one second it would suddenly explode all over the walls and paint them with Rainbow Juice.
And on top of that, her stomach. Gosh, how much her stomach hurt. It was like Applejack had walked up to her one day and told her that she wanted to practice her bucking and then immediately wheeled around on her forelegs and bucked Rainbow Dash directly in her gut repeatedly until she was lying on a bed in a hospital with an annoying phone always ringing and killing her brain cells. Her stomach hurt so badly.
Maybe she was sick. Maybe that was it. Her stomach was rolling round and round and round and her head was hurting as if she had spun loops for twenty four hours straight and on top of that she suddenly felt a tiny itch on her foreleg. Ugh.
She made up her mind: she didn't really like that phone. She hoped somepony would pick up the damned thing. Then it would stop ringing. Ring. Ring. Ring. It sounded like it was down in Manehattan it felt so far away. Gaaaah. She had only just woken up, and already she felt more bored than when she had broken her wings and discovered Daring Do all those years ago, spending her spare time banging her head against her bed post and bouncing a faulty ball against a wall.
Geez. Why in the wide world of Equestria did nopony ever answer that damned phone?
"Rainbow Dash!"
Somepony was calling her name. The loud voice reminded her of Spitfire, oddly enough. It sounded exactly like her, as if it was her in the first place...
Oh.
"Rainbow Dash! Front and center, lead!"
Ah, dammit. Here she was, as sick as a dog and her head practically spinning like a top, and now she was being called out of bed. She hoped she wasn't in trouble; she definitely wouldn't be able to deal with it in her grumbling state. Here she was, trotting through the bunk room as sick as a dog. Past the sleeping ponies who were completely and utterly fine in their own bunks, probably dreaming of what exciting thing tomorrow would bring. Lucky bastards. She really needed some sleep, and her head really hurt now as she approached the door leading outside, the still silence of the bunk room not helping her sickness.
She opened the door and trotted into the darkness of the outside, the moon hanging high in the sky and casting its white glow onto the phone booth sitting idly by itself.
She reached the phone and picked it up with a hoof.
"Rainbow Dash?"
"Twilight?"
"The girls really miss you, Rainbow."
"I know."
"How's the, uh, how's the Academy going, Rainbow?"
Rainbow raised her free hoof to her brow, feeling her brain pulsate like a drum on a concert day.
"It's going great, Twilight. My new wingpony is really cool, and I'm one of the fastest fliers in the Academy!"
"That's great, Rainbow Dash!"
Twilight's voice trailed off, then faltered.
"You should come home, Rainbow. We all really miss you."
"I know that, Twilight. But I can't just leave! Spitfire would rather quit her job than let one of her cadets just leave-"
"Mister Cake is dying, Rainbow. Misses Cake, the twins, Pinkie Pie. They're all devastated. You need to come home, Rainbow."
Her voice caught in her throat. She was out of breath. Rainbow rubbed her face with her free hoof all over, she felt so shocked. And then she felt her head again, feeling its drumbeat, and reached for her stomach and found its repulsive twisting and turning. Gosh, she sure was sick.
Okay she said into the phone, okay I'll be there in half an hour and she placed the telephone delicately onto its receiver, taking a step out of the booth and looking back toward the Wonderbolt Academy. She walked to it and pushed the door open again, entering the building and taking a left toward the offices where her boss was most likely sitting behind her desk. And then she found herself outside the leader of the Wonderbolt's, her number one idol, her boss' office door. Spitfire, it read, in bold golden lettering across its width.
Boy, was she sick. She liked to believe it, even though there was no need to believe it as it was a true feeling and she did in fact feel it, but she had to believe it so she could talk to Spitfire and fly down to Ponyville to help her friend through her devastation. The drum in her head and the churning in her stomach rose to dangerously uncomfortable levels, to the point where she felt she would simply let loose her lunch and collapse onto the floor but she couldn't do that she had to go down to Ponyville and help her friend.
Shaking her head lightly so she didn't disturb its fragility, she raised a hoof and knocked on the door twice, the low but commanding voice of Spitfire emerging from within as she beckoned Rainbow in. Rainbow calmly trotted in, allowing the door to swing shut behind her as she rubbed her stomach subconsciously.
"Rainbow Dash? What do you want?" she asked with a glare upon her brow, her front hooves delicately placed against each other like some old mastermind.
"I have to go home, ma'am. My dad died, ma'am, I gotta go home."
"Your dad died, kid? I'm sorry kid, I really am. You go on home, Rainbow, I'm really sorry. Do you know the way back to town?"
Rainbow nodded vigorously in reply, then groaned and raised a hoof to her head in sickened agony.
"Well okay," Spitfire finally said, a long sigh escaping her lips as she sunk slightly in her chair, "go ahead then, Dash. Take all the time you need, I'm sorry for your loss."
She muttered a quick thank you and exited the room quickly. Sure as hell it was a lie but who really cared in the end? Spitfire wasn't punishing her one bit and she would be able to do what she wanted and return to her friends. They needed her more than the Academy needed her. One little lie wouldn't kill her. She was the Element of Loyalty, after all, not the Element of Honesty.
And quite honestly, she felt absolutely sick and her heart was now starting to act up in the same vein as her brain was, like a constantly beating drum.
She felt incredibly sick. And that state of being made itself crystal clear as she walked out the front door of the Academy and suddenly felt a great gurgling from her stomach and suddenly threw a hoof over her mouth in an attempt to stave off what she knew was coming but it didn't work and she wiped her mouth of bile once the deed was done. She didn't think anypony would notice the discolored puddle oozing onto the clouds, but as she looked at it in disgust she decided against leaving it and placed another portion of cloud over it to cover it up.
She flared her wings and flew off and away from her beloved Academy, away from all her hopes and all her dreams.
She flapped her wings and flew toward her beloved town, her old life, and her wonderful friends. Friends who needed her, and to be completely honest, she needed them too. Sure, she was attending the one thing that would get her to where she had always wanted to be, and life couldn't have been greater for her, she was still sick, and she still needed to help her friends, and she suddenly realized that she had missed her friends the whole time.
It sickened her and it made her feel worse and on top of that now her heart began to beat harder and harder like an even bigger drum than before. Oh gosh, and her stomach and her head- don't even get her started on it. It felt even worse as she approached the small town, her town, the residence suddenly appearing through the thick clouds and from the mountains. The cold air did little to her; she had experienced countless times before and it wasn't anything new to her. But for some odd reason, it felt different though it felt the same as any other wind she had felt in her aerial travels.
She hummed at it for a brief second before she made up her mind and dipped her right wing toward the ground miles below her, intent on approaching the ground or more specifically the small gingerbread house that marked her pink friend's business place. She always loved going to there; while she couldn't eat too much in case she suddenly grew plump and unable, she still loved to munch on a cupcake or two before the day fully began. The waft of fresh baked goods and the smell of fudge emanating from the kitchen whenever she walked in and the excited expression on her friend's face whenever she walked in...
It was different, for sure. The door swung open and the mare walked into a silent house, save for a few choked sounds coming from the area to her left. There was no smell, not a single whiff of fudge. The place seemed like a complete opposite of its cousin, the hustling bustling Sugarcube Corner. What was this place called, then? She didn't know, but she didn't need to for long.
The bell above the door dangled; she hadn't opened the door wide enough for it to ring beforehand, and she heard the telltale sound of her name being called from a little ways away. Cocking her ear, she sucked in a pained breath and approached the calling, the mare realizing that it also led to the choking sounds, which she realized were coming from a completely devastated blue Earth pony, a purple-tinted tissue upon her eyes and a likewise purple hoof draped over her shoulder.
Twilight's head turned her friends way as she stopped in the doorway, and her eyes didn't show their usual happiness upon seeing her. Those violet eyes peered at her in silence, tears having already formed underneath them, just above the large bags that showcased the Unicorn's apparent lack of sleep. Rainbow understood this, she too was tired and sick and-
Somepony else was crying, too. She raised an eyebrow and looked at Twilight in a shocked hush. She said not a word, instead motioning to the other side of the room. Rainbow turned toward it, and found a slightly shaded pink mare curled up into a ball, puddles and puddles of what she assumed to be tears lying next to and directly underneath her.
Oh dear Celestia Pinkie Pie...
She hasn't talked to anyone Twilight said finally, her hoof still draped over Misses Cake. She told us to go away, she hasn't talked to anypony I'm scared Rainbow Dash she continued.
Rainbow could only look at her other friends. Applejack was hanging her head, her hat held silently in her hooves. Rarity was stuffing a tissue into her eyes as she wept, dark streaks running down her cheeks and staining the white fur underneath them. Fluttershy just stood there, a choking sound emerging from her as well in apparent intervals. Poor Fluttershy thought Rainbow Dash she must be completely ruined.
Only this wasn't something she'd usually say she just realized. It was weird but she didn't question it. Her friends needed her, and Pinkie Pie needed her so she had to help her because she was her friend and that's what friends were for after all.
She walked over to the pink mare who continued to sob relentlessly. Pinkie Pie? she asked. Pinkie Pie are you gonna be okay what happened?
The sobbing continued but she swore she could hear a faint reply that sounded an awful lot like an urging to go away Rainbow Dash. She had heard it a lot before, but not like this. Her friends mane was hung like a curtain it was so droopy. Rainbow reached a hoof out to her friend, only to watch as the Earth pony flinched and shook out of her reach and she looked up at Rainbow Dash with her blue eyes full of tears and ducked her head back into her forelegs and continued to cry. Rainbow was hurt but she knew that her friend was absolutely devastated so she gave a long sigh and an apology to a pony who ignored her and she furrowed her brow in anger as she realized that she couldn't help her friend in the slightest.
She knew why but it still got to her and she swore she would punch a wall if she couldn't find a way. But there wasn't a way and she clenched her eyes shut and grit her teeth and suppressed the overwhelming urge to cry out in absolute frustration. It conflicted with her Element, it conflicted with her inner being. It conflicted with her most of all, and it was all she could do to suppress herself from punching the blue wall next to her and knocking the small irrelevant paintings to the floor it wasn't like anypony noticed them anyhow. Nopony came into the Corner asking the owners who created the painting of the clown and the circus or who painted the two ponies with the pitchfork or who slaved months and months on the nice landscape of the Macintosh Mountains.
Nopony did, so she raised her hoof into the air to smash it into pieces even though she knew this wasn't like her but she did it anyway and was only stopped by a pair of knocks at the front door to which Rainbow's hoof faltered and she looked toward Twilight who motioned toward the door and gave a slight nod as if saying go open the door Rainbow Dash to which she did because she knew she was probably saying that after all.
And when she did she found the helmeted faces of two Royal Guards who looked at her with normal expressions plastered upon their faces. It wasn't the same angry expression she had grown accustomed to when they were in the presence of the princesses but it was a normal expression of a normal pony who was also awaiting the bad news. But they didnt ask and they instead told the cyan mare that they wished to speak to the Misses.
She cast a glance over to the crying mare and looked back at the guards with an annoyed expression and asked does it look like she wants to speak to you bub? And when they didn't give a response she added a didn't think so and began to close the door until a voice stopped her in her tracks. The sobbing from the other room continued, escalating and declining constantly as she peered toward the counter where the blue register sat with all its bits and checks.
Don't worry Dash the voice said, they're here to see me.
Rainbow's eyes widened. Mister Cake walked toward the mare, his fur blackened and crusted to the point of almost non-existence. His mane looked as if somepony had set a lighter to it and his orange and white hat and apron and striped bow-tie were completely missing on his person. Her breath caught in her throat and she couldn't find her voice and she could only utter a stutter as he approached her. That wasn't Mister Cake it may have seemed like it but it wasn't. Mister Cake was dead, and he looked like he was on his way through town to pick up supplies that day and had noticed that a house was on fire and had rushed in to save the ponies inside and none had come back out of the blazing inferno as the firefighters rushed to put it out and Mister Cake's family and friends were now left to weep for his death and he was suddenly alive and well if a bit battered and walked past Rainbow Dash as if she weren't there.
And then she stood there looking like a complete idiot with her mouth wide open hearing the sound of sobbing escalating to almost unbearable levels and watching Mister Cake trotting away calmly with the guards into the night and then the sobs grew further and Rainbow began to wince in pain as they grew louder and louder and louder and suddenly she could hear a ring ring ringing going through her ears as well and she threw herself to the floor and clenched her ears with her hooves as tightly as a filly to its mother and began to scream as it grew louder and louder even until it felt like it was breaking her eardrums and bleeding them onto the ground.
She was drifting. Her entire body hurt and she felt like she was incredibly, almost fatally ill to her stomach, her head, her heart. It all hurt. She was dreaming, then she was not, and then she was dreaming for a second time and awake for another time. Her sound was bouncing in and out and up and down and all she could hear was that damned phone and she wished somepony would pick the damned thing up oh Celestia if somepony had the gall, the guts, the merciful mind left in them to pick up the damned thing so it would stop ringing all the time and as she went through this she became more and more scared.
She remembered the time she had saved Scootaloo from that rushing river back when they were camping and how scared she herself was when she realized that she was missing from the cave, and then how even more scared she was when she watched the filly disappear over the waterfall thinking to herself the whole time don't let her die you can't let her die you're not going to let her die are you? and then she had flapped her wings as fast as she could to reach the filly and was able to catch her in the nick of time but she couldn't show her fright she couldn't she had to remain brave for Scootaloo she looked up to her for help and advice and shelter.
But inside that whole time she was scared absolutely scared and she wondered as they sat on the grass how the filly must have felt clawing her hooves out like a cat to remain afloat in the rushing water and not drown and sucking in big gulps of water and choking.
And right now she felt that feeling inside of her, that drowning feeling, that gasping for air feeling. Oh Celestia, her lungs felt like they had exploded as she desperately gasped for breath. She was choking but she suddenly found the small amount that she needed and sucked it into herself greedily. Sweet air, she thought, why am I choking am I hurt? She jolted in her bed suddenly and sweat began to pour down her brow and suddenly she felt them. The bandages she felt them. They were wrapped completely around her body, up and down, head to toe. She couldn't even see through them it was so dark.
She jolted again, and the shock shook her ribs like an earthquake. Her heart was trembling and beating furiously and she felt it smash her ribs with the earthquake, but she couldn't for the love of anything feel the pulse in her ears but-
Oh Celestia then she was deaf. She had heard about things like this back in her younger years, about how sometimes if the fliers were going too fast or went at too steep an angle or just didn't fly through the wind right they'd suddenly feel deaf and would remain so for quite some time even after the show was over. There was turbulence, change of wind pressure that made your ears pop and you'd have to work your jaw once or twice like a cow to rid yourself of it but she remained deaf no matter how long she waited. She wasn't just half deaf, or slightly deaf, or barely deaf. She was completely, stone-cold deaf.
So she lay there, her heart beating and her head beating and her stomach churning round and round and so she lay there thinking. What happened? and did anypony else get hurt? and why am I here? She rested for a brief second before she thought and what will it feel like yelling orders to my wingpony above the wind? She'd have to signal it with her hooves in sign language, or no, they'd have to signal it with their hooves in sign language. She felt a dark pit growing in her stomach. It was hard to be not right in the head or depressed or both, but it was lonesome to be deaf. Sure it was lonesome for the first two, too, but she hadn't ever experienced those before and now she was deaf and felt lonesome.
When you were deaf you were lonesome. When you were deaf you felt left out and completely isolated. You were practically forsaken.
So she wouldn't be able to hear again. Well when it came down to it, she didn't want to hear many things ever again. Not the sound of Spitfire yelling at her for something she did wrong, or listening to the sound of her wingpony being berated or berating her for something she did, or listening to the sound of some poor pony yelling out that he had been hurt and that he was vomiting all over the floor and why won't somepony stop what they were doing to help him stop walking out the front door stop walking past him this guy needs help.
Things were beginning to go in and out of focus. Dreaming, not dreaming. It felt like she was looking into a lake and was moving her head forward and back watching as her head shrank and grew, shrank and grew and laughing a fit until she couldn't laugh any longer at what she looked like in the lake all shrunken and grown. Only this wasn't just a joke she was pulling this wasn't a game it was real or at least she believed it was. It was real she was lying down on a bed or what felt like a bed and she was deaf and she couldn't hear and her stomach gurgled and grumbled and her head ached and her heart was beating out of her chest and it was real.
She was drifting in and out and she swore she could see the entirety of Ponyville from the inside of her cloud house at the dawn of the day in anticipation of what the day would bring and she saw herself stretching her legs and uttering a loud obnoxious yawn but she loved it and she swore she could see herself walking to her kitchen and preparing a hearty breakfast and she swore she could see herself walking out her front door with a toast wedged in her working mouth and she swore she saw herself flapping her wings and heading toward the Corner or to the Acres or to the Library or to the cottage or to the Boutique or wherever she wanted to go.
She had the whole day ahead of her and she swore she saw the joy and the happiness on her face and she swore she was living that but she wasn't she was sitting in a bed completely sick and badly injured and deaf. She wasn't flying through the sky with not a single boundary in sight she was sitting in a bed with multiple boundaries in feeling and knowledge. And then she swore she could hear the phone begin ringing once again and she cursed in silence hearing the ring ring ringing all over again and hearing it escalate but hearing it keep time with her heartbeats that continued to emanate in time with the phone and it with her heart and she was fading in and out of a darkness and back into dreamland and back into reality and she was sick of it and that damned phone oh somepony please pick the damned thing up please for the love of Equestria please my head.
Oh please my head and then slowly gradually there came a fading in of something she recognized something she knew and it hurt her head and oh please please the phone please...
Please anypony please my head oh Celestia my head...
Three months of winter coolness
And awesome holidays....
