In the Castle of Friendship
Author's Note
First time writing a fanfiction. I hope you enjoy!
In the Castle of Friendship
Rainbow Dash soared across the skies above Ponyville at a blinding speed. This would have been quite normal for her in any regular day of flight, but today she had to clear the skies before the end of the Hearts and Hooves Day Celebration that Twilight was hosting in her giant crystalline castle.
Ponies were expecting a cloudless evening to view the sunset at the end of Hearts and Hooves Day, and Rainbow Dash, being the most capable flier in Ponyville, was entrusted with making this a possibility. However it had begun to get late into the day and Rainbow Dash, being the typical procrastinator, waited until the last moment to begin clearing away the clouds. Thus Rainbow Dash was required to clear up the skies as fast as she possibly could.
As she rushed blindly through the clouds extending her fore-hooves in front of her to punch them out of existence, Rainbow Dash felt absolutely confident about her surroundings. Unfortunately she was not yet used to the new addition to the Ponyville environment: Twilight's behemoth tree castle. While she was finishing her quick work Rainbow Dash flew straight into a large cloud that had blocked out most of her vision; expecting to annihilate the cloud and come clean out on the other side. Not long after she flew into the cloud were her expectations shattered. Rainbow Dash slammed into a large polished solid surface and fell backwards out of the cloud she flew into. With no consciousness the rainbow-maned Pegasus fell into the Hearts and Hooves party below making a grant and alarming entrance.
Rainbow Dash woke up indoors, and that was all she could tell imminently since she knew she was staring into a high ceiling. While regaining her consciousness, she realized that she had been laying on a couch in Twilight's living room; bookshelves surrounded the walls of the room except at the staircase. It was dark outside the windows, and the room was completely empty except for herself, so the celebration Twilight was hosting had ended. A throbbing pain also made itself evident in Rainbow Dash's left arm as she gained her full consciousness.
The pain was so bad that she did not dare to move her arm in fear of causing more pain. Twilight cantered downstairs into her living room, and she realized Rainbow Dash was awake and beginning to stir. "Hey! lay still or you might hurt yourself worse."
"Thanks mom but I think I will be fine." Rainbow Dash replied sarcastically. The increasingly intense pain in her left arm reminded her that she was not completely okay though. Rainbow Dash grimaced and rested her right arm over her left arm, signifying the pain that she was feeling.
"You have a major fracture in your left arm, but you could have injuries in other places as well." Twilight removed Rainbow Dash's right arm from her left arm and examined the fracture. Twilight applied a small amount of pressure to the hematoma surrounding the fracture at her elbow joint. Rainbow Dash winced in pain.
"Ow! don't touch that bruised spot". Rainbow Dash investigated the red and purplish color forming around her elbow and realized her arm was bent at an odd angle.
"We will get you to the Ponyville Hospital, a doctor can reset your fracture. I sent spike to retrieve a medical carriage unit.."
"I don't need a medical carriage unit, I can trot over to the hospital myself since my other three hooves are fine."
"As I have said earlier, you might have more injuries, so movement could expedite them."
"But I don't feel any pain except in my arm." Rainbow argued.
"Your body is probably still in shock, so you might not feel anything for now." After getting the eye from Twilight for a few seconds, Rainbow Dash knew she could not argue her way out of this. She would have to wait for the doctors to arrive.
"This is the Worse Hearts and Hooves day ever!"
A concerned Twilight guarded over Rainbow dash like a hawk. Rainbow decided to pass the time by striking up conversation. "What did you mean when you were talking about resetting my fracture?"
"It means to re-position the broken bones so that they are in a better position."
Rainbow Dash thought of the painful implications of even barely moving her left arm. She asked the most important question that had immediately entered her mind. "will it hurt?"
"After the hematoma block, you will not feel anything." Since Rainbow Dash did not understand a single thing about 'hematoma blocks', Twilight's comment was not comforting or reassuring at all. Rainbow Dash went along with the conversation like she completely understood what was just said.
"Okay" Rainbow dash responded in an uneasy, quivering voice. She grew a worried look on her face.
The uncertain tone in Rainbow Dash's voice belied her nervousness, so Twilight attempted to reassure her again but without medical terminology this time. "Do not worry, everything will work itself out so there is no need to stress. Tomorrow you will wake up and everything will be normal again... I mean, except for the arm cast you will have to wear."
It was obvious that none of that had helped since Rainbow Dash still had a worried look on her face and her ears had pulled all the way back against her head. Twilight realized that she could not do anything to ease Rainbow's exhaustion and grabbed a book to read off of one of her many shelves after a few minutes of silence. Rainbow Dash just sat there, it was not like she had brought anything for her to do while she waited, and she had already read the last edition of Daring Do...
Suddenly, there was a knock at the front door of the castle. Twilight told Dash to sit tight while she went to the door. Twilight opened the door to Doctor Horse, Ponyville's general medical practitioner. Spike walked in behind him as Twilight closed the door with her magic and led him over to her injured friend.
"Another injury Ms.Dash, I wonder what we have today"
"Fractured left arm, it looks really bad." Twilight addressed the doctor.
"With the way she hit the castle, I am surprised that she didn't break both of her arms." added Spike.
The doctor examined the bruising that was forming around her elbow and spreading throughout her arm. "This look bad, but fortunately this is a simple fracture and not a compound fracture."
Rainbow Dash was confused, again, with medical terminology she did not understand. "What's the difference."
"Compound fractures are when the bone tears out of the skin." Dr. Horse responded immediately. Right then it seemed obvious to Rainbow Dash that, in fact, she did not have a compound fracture. It made her thankful that her injury was not worse. She had seen many 'compound fractures' as she now knew they were called, in other ponies at her flight camp; the accidents did not look pretty. Since she was a daring Pegasus, injuries were a common part of Rainbow's life. She would have been fine waking up in a hospital receiving heavy painkillers as usual. That was not the case in her current situation, and that made her very uncomfortable.
The doctor addressed the situation after he examined Rainbow. "Well, what I will have to do is reset the bone, add a splint, form a cast around the arm, and you will have to rest for about a day or two. It is a good thing is that you don't seem to have any more injuries." Doctor Hooves began rummaging through the suitcase that he had brought with him to the castle. After finding the local anesthetic that he was looking for, he began the procedure...
On one hoof, Dash was never happy when she was not allowed to fly or exercise, and on the other she happy to have a little break. Twilight insisted that she stay at the castle while she rested, and she spent the night with Twilight after the doctor had worked on her arm even though she no longer felt any pain. While the sun rose the next morning she awoke happy to spend a relaxing day with her friends Spike and Twilight. With all these books around, she might even try reading something other than Daring Do.
