Hurt

"What in tarnation were ya thinkin'!?"

Rainbow Dash visibly flinched, keeping her eyes glued to the floor. She wasn't usually one for letting anyone give her any sort of verbal abuse, either shrugging it off or fighting back. But this time... she screwed up. She screwed up really bad.

"Look at me when Ah'm talkin' ta ya! Ah want ta know ya're listenin' ta me!" Applejack shouted once more, grabbing Rainbow Dash's shoulders and shaking her until she looked her in the eye. Even with Applejack's usual temperament she wouldn't touch another pony usually, not wanting to accidentally harm them or relay the wrong message. But Rainbow Dash, or anypony for that matter, could see she was beyond pissed. The rage of Nightmare Moon or Pinkie Pie when someone broke a Pinkie Promise paled in comparison to the Apple, her stetson on the ground from her constant rage-filled movements.

"Applejack, why don't ya ease up on h-" Apple Bloom started to say, the young filly clutching the hem of her green flannel shirt, but stopped as her sister shot her a venomous look, immediately averting her gaze.

"Ease up? EASE UP!? It's her fault that Big Mac ended up like this!" Applejack roared, tears burning at the corners of her eyes as she spoke. Looking back to Rainbow Dash, she released her shoulders and took a couple of steps back, some small, rational part of her telling her to reel it in a little. "Ya went an' did this ta mah big brother an' ya haven't spoken a single word? Ya ain't even said ya're sorry!"

"Would sorry really change anythin' right now?" a much older, much softer voice replied. All eyes were brought to Granny Smith, sitting in a chair beside a hospital bed, her usual shawl missing from her shoulders, instead being twisted between her hands as she stared at the eldest of her grandchildren.

Lying in a hospital bed, Big Mac was dressed only in a hospital gown, his right leg encompassed in a cast and elevated. In addition to the leg cast, he also had a cast covering his left arm, left hanging to keep it from touching his chest. Beneath the gown, there were bandages wrapped around his ribs, as well as some around his head. In total, he had suffered a broken arm, a broken leg, three cracked ribs, with one of them pressing against his lungs when he had first been admitted. Thankfully the Apples grew them strong, and in addition to Big Mac's almost impossibly sturdy frame, Rainbow Dash's attempts to stop him had slowed his descent more than she had realized, making it so none of his limbs broke on the tree branches with enough force to puncture the skin. But as far as she, or Applejack for that matter, was concerned, she had merely made her mistake slightly less terrible.

Not normally one for speaking against the family's matriarch, Applejack walked over to the bed, waving an arm over the stallion. "Look at him Granny. Ah've seen Big Mac hurt before, really Ah have. But this... this is too far! He coulda died!" she snarled, not trying to shout at her grandmother, but finding it impossible not to express her anger in some way.

Glancing up to Applejack with soft, watery eyes, Granny replied "Applejack, Ah know how ya feel. Ya lost ya parents at a young age an' ya don't wanna lose yar brother now. Believe me, Ah know. Ah lost the love of mah life. Ah lost mah son an' his love before their time. Ain't no parent should ever have ta bury their child. An' by all means, Ah'm damn well not ready ta see one of my grandfoals buried before Ah go. So while Ah'm upset as well, believe me when Ah say Ah'm just happy he's still with us."

Applejack bit her bottom lip, snatching her stetson off the side table and forcing it back on her head, shielding her eyes from the room. She wanted to scream at the top of her lungs so badly, but it was hard to argue with Granny, especially when she raised such a point. Because as much as she was angry at Rainbow Dash for letting her brother get into this condition, because as sad as she was to see him hurt so badly, because as incredibly frustrated as she was for being helpless to do anything for her brother, she was just happy to see her brother was alive.

On the other hand, Rainbow Dash still didn't know what to say or do. She wasn't even sure she should have been there. The Apples were fighting their own emotions over this and she... couldn't do anything about it. She couldn't reassure them that things would be better, because she was the one that had made things this way. But she couldn't just leave. It was just who she was to stay by Big Mac's side until she knew for certain he was going to be one-hundred percent. And if he never got back to one-hundred percent, then she had to figure out what she could do to make up for it, in addition to making up for getting him injured in the first place.

"Is... is it safe to come in now?" Nurse Redheart asked, her head peeking in from the door. She was usually much more active in restraining energetic or upset ponies, but considering the situation, even she had veered away from the storm that was Applejack's fury. Once she ascertained that it was safe, she walked in, clutching in a clipboard in one hand while her other smoothed out her nurse's uniform. "Well, now that everypony is calm, I'd like to have a word with you about Big Macintosh's treatment." she announced, looking to the Apples first, then glancing at Rainbow Dash. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to step out while I talk with the immediate family.

Rainbow Dash's mouth opened slightly, trying to find some form of argument for her to be there. She wanted to see it all through. She wanted to know if she could assist on the treatment. She wanted... to do something to make up for it all. But for now, all she could do was leave the room with a hung head.

Her leaving the room didn't do much to keep her from pressing an ear against the door and listening in. It was all fairly simple stuff regarding how they'd treat him. Most of it she didn't really understand because of the complex medical jargon, but she was able to piece together that, with the help of modern science and magic, especially with the occasional assistance of one alicorn princess who just so happened to be a close family friend, they would be able to get Big Mac back on his feet in no time. It'd take a little longer past that for him to be back to normal, but thankfully they had moved him out of the life threatening part due to a quick response, something they attributed to the attention garnered by the Sonic Rainboom.

"What are you doing?" asked the resident doctor of the hospital, Doctor Horse. Rainbow Dash pulled her head away from the door with a jump as she looked to the unicorn, adjusting his glasses as he peered at the eavesdropper, missing out on what Nurse Redheart was saying about Big Mac's treatment once he got home.

"M-My friend got hurt and I wanted to hear if he was going to be okay." Rainbow Dash admitted guiltily, more so over her role in his injury than the eavesdropping.

Glancing to the door, Doctor Horse nodded. "Yes, Big Macintosh. Quite a nasty fall. Any other pony and they'd certainly not have made it. Good thing the young stallion's sturdier than the tree he landed in." Doctor Horse chuckled, trying to inject some humor into the situation. However, the downcast look from the pegasus told him it wasn't working. "I can assure you that he'll be just fine, Miss Dash. I personally promise that he'll come out as good as new. Might even get the tires changed." he explained, laughing a bit at his own joke, as terrible as it was.

"I just... is there anything I can do to help?" Rainbow Dash asked, getting a curious look from the doctor that begged an explanation. "If you haven't already heard, it's... my fault that he's like this."

"Oh by all means Miss Dash, I've already heard." Doctor Horse stated, getting a wide eyed look from Rainbow Dash. "Whoever said Tartarus hath no fury like a mare scorned obviously never met Applejack when she's worried about her family. I, my staff, and the entire hospital heard Miss Applejack blaming you for her brother's condition."

Any other time and Rainbow Dash would have laughed at that, but this time she could only nod. "Y-yeah, well... you know why I want to help. Not just because it's my best friend's brother, but because it's my fault he's like this. So anything I can do to help him would be... the start of me saying I'm sorry."

Offering a sympathetic smile, Doctor Horse reached out to place a hand on the blue-coated mare's shoulder. "Miss Dash, you can do the most important thing anypony can do in this situation." he stated, Rainbow Dash getting excited from the prospect of playing an important role in Big Mac's recovery. "You can be there for him."

Instantly, the joy drained from Rainbow Dash's face, her displeasure with the doctor only outweighed by the displeasure she had with herself. "That's not enough."

"On the contrary, it's the most important thing you can do. While it's true that only certain ponies can get him back in physical condition, this is going to be far more emotional than you might imagine. Given I care for all my patients, as a doctor I have to look at all of them as just that, patients. He's going to need ponies like you to care for him, to let him know someone wants him to bounce back from this, and it's important he knows it's more than just his family." Doctor Horse explained, releasing his light grip from Rainbow Dash to readjust his glasses.

A dry laugh escaped Rainbow Dash's lips as her eyes dropped to the ground once more. "He's like this because I was trying to show somepony besides his family cared about him."

Sighing, Doctor Horse turned away from the pegasus, walking off to attend to another patient. But before he totally left Rainbow Dash's range of hearing, he said "Then make sure he knows that. Even if the result is a failure, the thought can be far more important sometimes." And with that, Rainbow Dash was left to her own thoughts on how to handle this.

That night, after visiting hours were over and the Apple family were sent home with the advice that they get themselves a good night's rest so that Big Mac could get his own, the hospital was silent with the exception of machines occasionally beeping to indicate the good health, or at least recovering health, of their patients. The patients were asleep and only the graveyard shift of nurses remained awake... except for one pony.

Slipping through the window of Big Mac's room, which was located on the third floor, giving just an idea of what sort of pony this may be, the lone pony pulled up a chair next to Big Mac's bed. Carefully, they laid down a stack of books, then looked to Big Mac's motionless face. Despite the knowledge that he was sleeping, with as much as he had been through, the pony couldn't help but think he looked like he was dead.

"I'm sorry Big Mac." Rainbow Dash whispered, careful not to alert any night shift nurses to her presence in the room. "I was trying to give you that... that little bit of freedom. The sensation of flying for a short period of time, so you wouldn't feel tied down on the farm. And now... damn, you've got to get better. Not for me, but for yourself, for the others. It's breaking their hearts to see you like this." Rainbow Dash pleaded, unwilling to admit how terribly shaken up she was about this herself.

She received no reply, but she didn't expect to get one. Instead, she just reached over to the stack of books and lifted one of them up to the moonlight flowing through the window, revealing Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone, the first of the Daring Do novels and secret autobiographies as she had discovered. "When I was in the hospital with a broken wing, I had nothing to do but read. I thought it was so stupid at first, reading being just for eggheads and stuff, you know? But these books were really something else, so I figured that you might enjoy them as well."

Still no answer. She wasn't sure why she paused... no, rather, she knew exactly why she did. Even though she expected no response, she wanted desperately for him to give one regardless, as if he wasn't injured at all. That she would say something, then he'd speak and she could feel like she hadn't potentially ruined her friendship with Applejack. To say that she hadn't nearly killed somepony doing something reckless. To say... that she hadn't potentially turned a pony from turning away from the wonders of feeling the same sort of freedom she did every day.

Opening the cover, Rainbow Dash flipped through the first few pages of the book, filled with the boring publishing information that nopony ever read. "I know you can't read right now, but I figured it'd be best to get you hooked early so you don't back out of it like I almost did. So if you don't mind, I'll go ahead and read the first couple of chapters for you." Of course, she still didn't get an answer, but she didn't need it. As small a gesture as it was, Rainbow Dash inhaled deeply, then began to read.

Author's Note

Le gasp! More than one scene (sorta) in a chapter? How innovative of me! But in reality, wanted to leave this note as a thanks for all my readers so far. Every little bit of encouragement so far has really helped makes enjoy writing this story all the more. It's not like I expect a comment on every single chapter or from every single reader, but just that occasional acknowledgement that people are still reading is really appreciated, ya know? Anyways, I hope you all keep enjoying this story as much as I enjoy making it.