At The Mid Hour Of Night, I Fly

BEEP

Rainbow was very suddenly aware of an incessant beeping noise whereas before there was nothing.

BEEP...BEEP

Where the hay was she? She was lying on her back. Warm, she was warm. Everywhere was black, why was it black? Something just squeezed her left hand…

BEEP...BEEP

Rainbow attempted moving her arms, nothing. Okay. She tried moving her legs, nothing. Wherever she was she couldn’t move and it smelt clean, bleach clean. That sane something squeezed her hand again, harder this time. Instinctively Rainbow squeezed back…

BEEP...BEEP...BEEP

She noticed her heart was beating faster, the same time she noticed the damned beeping increase too. Where in Equestria was she? Not knowing why, Rainbow squeezed the the thing holding her hand again…

BEEP…BEEP – “Doctor!  She’s waking up!”

It was that voice of reason.  The voice of hope.  Rainbow Dash felt warm.  “But why was she calling to a doctor,” she thought and then it came back to her.  The race and how she missed the turn.  The wall and the crash.  The pain.  The pain was gone.  Must be drugs.  The pegasus struggled to open her eyes but they wouldn’t cooperate.  She wanted to speak but something was in her mouth.  Her left arm felt distant so she reached out with the right one.  Someone took her hand and the panic that was building up subsided.

A hand softly touched her cheek and Dash was able to force her eyes open.  It wasn’t very bright in the room but there was enough light to see Fluttershy.  She tried to talk again but something stopped her.  She wanted to move her hand to find out what it was, but Shy was stronger and kept the hand from moving.  The lights in the room brightened causing the pegasus to shut her eyes tight.  She blinked until they adjusted.  In the room was a stern looking male.  It was as sterile room so it had to be a hospital.  She knew the crash was sever.  A look at her right arm though showed it was whole.  Some scars but no cast.  Dash remembered it snapping when she hit the wall.  She could see part of her wing folded under her body.  A white sheet covered her body and she looked down to where her feet were.  Moving back up she saw her left arm was wrapped in some bandage.  It wasn’t a cast, but still her whole arm felt funny.  Rainbow’s view was blocked by Fluttershy’s hair.  Soft kisses on her cheek and forehead.  The wetness of the tears that fell on her.  Dash started to cry as she was held by her lover.  She was alive.

Fluttershy held tight to her lover’s hand.  “Dashie you had me so worried, we thought you’d never wake up!  We, I mean, I, we, um, was so scared for you.”  The pink haired pegasus couldn’t hold back the sobs.

Rainbow wanted to hug her but her left arm wouldn’t cooperate.  To hold her in her wings but they wouldn’t cooperate either.  Dash felt helpless and she didn’t like feeling helpless.

A cleared throat drew the attention of both ladies.  The doctor waited for the waited for the woman at the bedside to sit back up and noted she didn’t let go of the hand.  “First let me get that tube out of your throat and please do not talk, okay?”  With the blue skinned girls nod he slowly removed the feeding tube.  He then held a closed cup with a straw to her mouth, “Drink slowly and let yourself adjust to having the tube removed.”  He watch the girl drink greedily, “Slow sips please.”  Once she stopped the doctor handed the cup to the yellow skinned girl.  “Hold that please, she will need more.”

The male stood back up and retrieved the clipboard form the foot of the bed.  “Do you now this person beside you?”  The patient nodded.  “Is your name Rainbow Dash?”  Again the patient nodded.   “Do you know where you are?”  This time the nod wasn’t so sure.

Dash turned to Fluttershy and opened her mouth.  The pegasus was quick to move the straw to her lips.  After a few sips moved her head back and croaked out, “I love you.”  Fluttershy’s smile outshone the sun.  After a few more sips Rainbow turned back towards the doctor, and then back down at her right arm.  The vision of it snapping was fresh in her mind like it was just yesterday.  “How long?”

Fluttershy answered, “It has been four months since… since… the accident.” Her eyes filled with tears again, “I’m so sorry Dashie, I’m so sorry.”

It was just like Shy to apologize for her own mistakes.  Dash needed to hug her but the left arm still wouldn’t move.  She pulled herself forward anchored by Flutter’s grip on her hand.

The yellow skinned pegasus responded immediately.  The cup fell from her hand to the floor and busted open spilling the water.  The hand that held the cup shot forward to push against Dash’s chest and shoved her against the bed, but it was too late.  One wing enveloped Fluttershy.  The pink haired girl pressed her face against Rainbow’s breast.

Time again slowed for the pegasus.  The look of anguish on her lover’s face was something she had never seen.  One wing.  Only one wing.  Why in Luna’s name did she only have one wing!  Dash snapped back to the present and she glared at the doctor, “Why do I only have one wing.”  It hurt to talk, but the pain in her throat was nothing compared to the pain inside.  “Why did you take my wing!”  She wanted to scream.  She wanted to yell.  “Why did you take my Luna damned wing!  Why did you take my…”

The doctor threw the clipboard at the wall to the right of Rainbow Dash’s head.  The noise was loud in the small room when it hit followed by the sound of it clattering against the floor.  It had the effect the male wanted.  It stopped her rant.  He raised his head and pointed a finger at the rainbow haired patient.  “You spread flesh, feathers, and bone across half a kilometer of track.  You tore your Luna damned wing from your own body.  You did this.  You.”

The realization of her own folly weighed heavily on the pegasus.  She lost a wing.  Her wings were her life.  Her life was now dead.  Why did the dead still breathe?  A murmer from her chest froze her thought process.  Again the sound drifted to her ears and she could make out the words this time, ‘I love you.’  Would that be enough to live?  Could it be enough to go on?  Again those three word drifted to her ears, and she squeezed the hand that held hers, “I love you too, Fluttershy.” She felt her world fall away. Everything she had trained for since being five years old was gone. Her dreams of joining the Wonderbolts, gone. Everything she was, everything that made her Rainbow Dash was gone, taken from her in an instant, stolen by a freak accident, a random strike of chance. And it was all her own fault. She had the race won. She could have just flown over the finish line and that would have been that. But no, not the great Rainbow Dash. She just had to show off didn't she? Look what that had bought her now. All she had was Fluttershy and her love for her. It would have to be enough.  Dash looked back at the doctor who had lowered his arm.

The doctor picked up the clipboard, pulled over a chair, and sat down.  “Miss Dash, you went sub-sonic before you hit the wall at around nine hundred kilometers per hour.  That is what most likely saved your life.”  He pointed to her wing.  “You broke most of the bones in your wing.  Twelve fractures in all.  Only the humerus survived intact.  There are carbon filament sleeves around the bones that will be in there for the rest of your life.  You fractured your lower right arm in five places and the upper arm in two.  That is the reason for all the scaring.  Your right leg just received some bruising.  You broke your left hip in two places and a compound fracture of your left femur.”  He flipped up the sheet to show the scaring on her upper leg.  “Your left arm was still attached to your body.  You dislocated all the joints and broke the scapular and collar bone.  Your radius bone was replaced with an artificial one.  There is a sleeve over your humerus.  We used muscle tissue from your leg to rebuild your arm.  Skin grafts take time.  The last one needed was done two weeks ago.  In another six weeks we’ll know if they took and are infection free.”  He pointed to her head, “I don’t know how many times you bounced that thick skull against the track.  There was major bleeding and swelling.  We drilled holes in your skull to relieve pressure with shunts.  Until you woke up we weren’t sure how extensive the damage was to your brain.  It is a good sign you remember what happen, who you are, and your friend.”  The doctor paused, “Any questions so far?”

Dash listened to the laundry list of injuries, but none of it really sunk in.  “How fast was I going when I hit the track?”

“It is estimated you were doing five hundred kilometers an hour when you hit the track.  The wall slowed you down and being a pegasus combined to keep you alive after that.” He replied.  “As you can see the fractures are healed already.  Your left arm just need more time because of the skin grafts.”  His face turned grim, “Now for the bad news.”

The pegasus glared at the physician.  She lost a wing.  What could be worse than that?

Fluttershy’s voice interrupted her thoughts again.  She was repeating, ‘I’m sorry,’ over and over again.  “Flutters stop that.  Don’t take this from me.  I’m the responsible one here.  Please don’t take my guilt away.  Do you understand?”  She stopped talking but didn’t move.  “Do you understand?”  A nod of her head was enough for Dash, “Thank you, and I love you.”  She looked back at the doctor.

“You broke every rib on your left side.  There was just eight inches left of your wing humerus, and the impact drove that through your left lung, esophagus, and into your liver.  Bone fragments from your ribs pierced your chest, abdomen, and left leg.  The ribs were pieced back together or artificial bone was used.  Your two floating ribs are gone.  Your left lung has one lobe left so it is running at twenty five percent.  You’ll tire quicker than you used to.  Your left kidney was destroyed and your right kidney fell apart so both have been removed.  The shunts for hemodialysis are in your upper right leg.”  He reached over to show the two tubes to Rainbow.  “We can transfer them to your left arm it the physical therapist says we can.”  He flipped the sheet back.  “The damage to your gut ruled out peritoneal dialysis.  Along with your kidneys you lost your pancreas and eight feet of intestine.  Diet and enzymes will correct those to items.  You also lost your left ovary and your uterus was unrepairable.  A full hysterectomy was done.”  He paused so that could sink in.

With her career Dash never really thought about having children.  She figured Fluttershy would catch the ‘I want to be a momma’ bug.  Now she had no career and couldn’t have children.  She looked down at her lover whose eyes were closed.  She squeezed her hand once and she squeezed back.  “Is that all?”

“If it was you’d be able to look forward to a long life, but the liver is a delicate organ.  Yours is running at about fifteen percent.  If you don’t get a transplant I’d estimate you’d have around a year to live, maybe a bit more.  The list for transplants is long and the success rate is low.  Plus you’ve used up four of those months already.”  He stood up.  “Tomorrow you’ll start physical therapy.  This will let us know the extent of any nerve damage.  Depending on how it goes will determine when we can release you.”  The doctor turned to the young girl beside the bed, “Miss Fluttershy, since your partner is awake and if she agrees you can share her bed.  I’ll let the night nurse know.”

Dash looked at her lover and she now had her eyes open, “Share my bed?”

Fluttershy pointed at the curtain behind her, “There is a bed on the other side of that where I’ve been sleeping.”

“How long have you been here?” the blue pegasus asked.

“Since the accident,” her lover replied.

“How could you afford that?” Dash inquired.

As the doctor stood to take his leave, he motioned to the unnoticed package at the foot of Rainbow’s bed. “While you were unconscious I understand a friend of yours left this for you. And these, tokens from your friends and admirers.” The doctor turned, exited the room, and closed the door behind him.

Rainbow’s attention was drawn to the vast array of cards and balloons she hadn’t noticed before now. There were too many to count at once, the window sill overflowed with them, then they were stuck around the window and all over the rest of the wall. Surely she didn't know this many people? Scanning the cards from her bed she saw the largest most colourful card, in the centre, the one that meant the most to her right now. The one marked simply with three butterflies, three apples, three diamonds, three balloons and a six pointed star, all surrounding a multi coloured lightning bolt coming from a white cloud. “Thanks girls.” Was all Rainbow could say.

Thinking back on Fluttershy staying at the hospital for four months, Rainbow asked again, “so, how'd you afford to stay here?”

“You have the Wonderbolts to thank for that Dashie.”

“The Wonderbolts?” Rainbow was confused. “Why would they do that for me, for us?”

“Spitfire, Soarin and Fleetfoot all insisted on taking the bill, something about all three of them owing you their lives. They came by the same afternoon after the princesses teleported us here. Spitfire in particular gave the hospital an open cheque and told them to charge everything they needed to them.”

Fluttershy still held Rainbow in her tight hug, planting soft kisses over her cheek, neck and exposed shoulder. Her soft voice was almost inaudible in Rainbow’s ear. “Open the package, you'll like it.” With shaky hands Rainbow looked at the package she held, no larger than a briefcase. On it was a simple message to her.

“To Rainbow Dash. A true Wonderbolt if ever there was. Your Rainboom was awesome and you showed all of us there the qualities of an elite flier to finish that race, let alone win it in such spectacular fashion. I've watched you since you saved us and your friend at the Young Fliers competition in Cloudsdale. You never fail to impress me. This is yours, you earned it a long time ago. With greatest respect, your friend Spitfire.”

Carefully tearing the package to preserve the note, Rainbow looked down to see a pristine blue and gold Wonderbolt uniform, RAINBOW DASH carefully embroidered in large white letters on the left breast, her cutie mark displayed on the right, a privilege only granted to captains like Spitfire.

Rainbow Dash glanced at her girlfriend, shooting her a puzzled look at her tears that were cascading down her pretty yellow face. “What is it?”

“N – nothing, I - I'm okay…”

“You aren't, c’mon babe tell me what's up.”

Fluttershy wiped her eyes on the sleeve if her pink jacket, sniffling back the tears. “I - it's just this,” she gestured to Rainbow’s battered body, “it's, it's all my fault you're like this…mmph!”

Rainbow cut her off with a fierce kiss to her lips, with all the passion she could muster in her weakened state. “That's utter horse-apples Flutters, how do you work that out?”

“ I - I saw you, from the crowd, as you tuned that last corner. You looked up at me cheering you, you winked and went faster. If – if I hadn't have cheered you on, you wouldn't be like this now…”

“Fluttershy, listen. I wanted you there cheering me on. I needed my girlfriend shouting for me. You inspire me, you motivate me, you're everything to me.” Rainbow paused, this level of sappiness wasn't like her, but Fluttershy needed to hear this. “I would have popped that rainboom regardless if you were there or not, you know that. I – I, I'm glad you were there. You made sure I wasn't alone when I woke up. That's the difference Fluttershy, that's why I love you with all my heart. That last rainboom was all yours, they were all for you, every single one I ever made, you made them all possible, because you believed in me and never doubted me, even when I doubted myself.”

Fluttershy pulled Rainbow Dash into a crushing hug, “I love you.”