Staring at a star

It was a beautiful sunny day in Ponyville, every pony was having a quiet and relaxed day. There was not a single cloud in the sky, Celestia's sun shining bright in the blue sky. All of this silent peace was disrupted by a rumbling sound in the blue sky, it started to darken and swirl. The pony's on the market ran away in fear towards houses, and fled inside. The dark swirl in the sky was sending out electrical shocks while still growing, the swirl stretched open and revealed a star filled dark void. A bright light shot through the swirl, in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres. As soon as the light was out of the dark void, the opening disappeared as fast as it did appear.

The orange earth pony was sleeping against one of the apple trees, her mare friend was sleeping next to her, resting her head on her belly. The rainbow maned mare woke up from her sleep by a loud splash in the nearby lake, and looked in shock at the explosion of water rising up from the lake.

''Applejack! Wake up, something has happened, something big'', the rainbow maned mare said in horror, she started to push up her mare friend and ran towards the lake, ''come on hurry up!''

''Rainbow wait, what’s w-wrong'' Applejack said in shock as she looked up in the sky at the funnel of water.

Apple Jack reached the lake and looked around the beach of the lake, gaining no sight of Rainbow Dash. The water was coming down again, filling the half-filled lake back up to its normal level and causing it to rain in the area around it.

''Rainbow Dash! Where are you?'' Applejack cried out, several moments later the surface of the water broke revealing a rainbow colored mane.

Rainbow Dash gasped for air as soon as she broke the surface, dragging a pony with her, leaving a red bloody trail in the muddy water. Applejack reached Rainbow and helped her to get the pony out of the lake, and also helping her exhausted mare friend to keep her head above water.

As soon as they reached the beach of the lake they pulled out the red, torn up, bleeding pegasus pony onto the beach. Rainbow Dash collapsed from exhaustion and lag of oxygen, she was panting heavily a few feet away from Applejack who was performing CPR on the red pegasus while Rainbow was catching back her breath.

Rainbow Dash struggled to stand up and was wobbling legs. she limped finding it hard to walk, one of her front legs was bleeding and had a deep cut in it. When she dove in the lake she had shot past a sharp rock on the bottom, which had torn a deep gash in her right front leg.

The red pegasus was coughing up water and blood, the stitched wound on his hull was opening up again, making the pink squishy organs visible and blood flowing out.

The pony was barely breathing, but every breath he did take was with a sickly gurgling sound, Applejack's CPR had left her exhausted and covered in blood, but the pony was alive was breathing again even if it was very shallow.

''Rainbow help me get him to the hospital, and fast!'' Applejack ordered Rainbow, not knowing she was injured.

Rainbow Dash limped towards, carefully not to use her right front leg. ‘’Rainbow are you okay?’’ Applejack asked quickly while looking concerned at the limping mare.

‘’yeah, I’m fine’’ Rainbow Dash replied with a painful expression on her face, ‘’ let’s get him out of here!’’

They both lifted up the pony, balancing him on their backs and started their way towards the town in a quick pace, leaving a trail of blood on the streets and dirt roads. Ponies that saw the two mares with a torn up pegasus on their backs screamed in horror and looked away, some even had to vomit at the sight of the pegasus pony.

As soon as they reached the hospital they rushed through the doors, knocking a few ponies aside that also immediately looked in shock and made room for them to pass

''Somepony, anypony. HELP!'' Applejack yelled through the lobby of the hospital almost collapsing of exhaustion.

Immediately multiple nurse and doctor pony ran towards the yell of despair by the well-known farm pony. As soon as the red pegasus was placed on a stretcher and moved to the ER, Applejack focused her attention on Rainbow Dash, helping her mare friend by supporting her right side.

‘’Are you okay Dash? That cut doesn’t look good’’ Applejack asked while still panting and tears of concern in her eyes.

''By Celestia's sake, what happened'' One of the nurses asked to two heavily panting ponies. ‘’Ooh dear, please follow me and let me take care of that cut’’

''Come on AJ; let's get this scratch fixed up'' Rainbow Dash said to Applejack in a reassuring tone.

''That ain't no scratch, that's a flesh wound'' Applejack said while still looking at the deep gash in Rainbow's front leg.

Rainbow Dash replied to the comment with a giggle and started to limp after the nurse, Applejack beside her, still giving support to Rainbow Dash's weak side.

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‘‘Excuse me madam?'' a voice said causing Applejack to wake up and look up to a doctor pony standing in front of her. She yawned and sat upright to hear the doctor out. ''He is stable now, but he didn't regain his consciousness yet. We are afraid he might be in a coma, we don't know for how long he will stay like this... I'm sorry''

Applejack was happy that he still was alive and stable in the first place, and gave the doctor a small smile and a nod.

''If you two brought him in here even a few minutes later he wouldn't be alive anymore, you really saved his life'' the doctor said with a smile. ''I am sorry that we have this little information, but it will take a lot of time for him to recover that is what I can say for sure''.

''I'm glad that he still is alive in the first place, thank you for saving him doctor'' Applejack said with a small smile. ‘’Don’t thank me, we just gave him some blood and stitched him back up. You two are the once who actually saved him.’’ The doctor replied with a smile. ‘’I’ll let you rest now’’.

The doctor smiled and walked away from the opening of the room and closed the door, allowing the pair to get some more rest. Applejack buried her muzzle into Rainbow's mane, causing Rainbow to moan softly and smile in her sleep, after a few moments Applejack fell into a light slumber.

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Applejack woke up from a restless sleep, finding her all alone in a dimly lit room covered in blankets on a bed. She was starting to panic, where was Rainbow Dash? Her mind was still in shock by the horrors she had just seen a few hours before.

''R-Rainbow? Where are you?'' Applejack whispered softly into the room

The door of the room slowly opened and a rainbow maned mare walked in, closing the door behind her and walked up to the bed Applejack was lying in. She climbed up the bed and lay down against Applejack, she covered herself with some of blankets.

Applejack felt the warm body of the pony pressing slightly against her, it was Rainbow. Applejack wrapped her front legs around Rainbow, pulling her into a tight against herself and nuzzled Rainbows mane.

Rainbow Dash turned around, now lying face to face with Applejack, and hugged her. ‘’It’s gonna be okay’’ Rainbow whispered into Applejacks ear and kissed her on the lips for several heart beats, ‘’I’m with you’’

They cuddled for several minutes, nuzzling the other mare mane, before they both fell asleep in each others arms.

Applejack woke up again, but this time by the bright light shining though the little window of the quest room in the hospital. Rainbow Dash looked impatient at the orange earth pony, which stood next to the window tapping her hoof good hoof on the floor impatiently.

''I know you we both are early birds, so get up! I've been awake for hours!'' Rainbow Dash said annoyed. Applejack looked up at her mare friend and slowly got out of the small bed, she stretched her back making little cracking sounds.

''Finally...'' Rainbow said slightly annoyed, ''now please let's go do something! I'm so bored'' she sighed. One of the nurses told me that they had asked Twilight to help out with the pegasus, so she must be around here in the hospital somewhere. Come on, let's go find her!''

Applejack looked confused at Rainbow Dash and nodded slowly at her, when suddenly her stomach growled, Applejack giggled and a faint blush appeared on her cheeks.

''Let me guess... You want to do eat first?'' Rainbow Dash said annoyed, Applejack smiled and nodded.

‘’uuugh fine… you are lucky I’m hungry to. But right after that we go and find Twilight, deal?’’ Rainbow Dash said, Applejack nodded and smiled.

Rainbow Dash sighed and walked through the door after Applejack, who was walking at a bit slower pace so that Rainbow could follow with her injuries. They reached the cafeteria of the hospital and walked inside. There was a tired and stressed looking purple unicorn sitting all alone at a table in the dining area with a large cup of coffee levitating in front of her, she was quickly browsing through some notes and file’s while taking small sips from her cup.

''Hi there Twilight!'' Rainbow Dash said loudly, causing Twilight to jump up in dismay and shriek.

Twilight surprised by the loud pegasus pony and accidentally spilled her coffee on the papers in front of her, causing them to be drenched on the hot black liquid. Twilight quickly tried to dry them with a napkin, but soon found it was of no use she snarled and slowly turned to the pony who startled her.

''You dumb, impotent, useless piece of... Ooh Rainbow Dash it's you. I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you'' Twilight said with a grief expression on her face.

''Seems like somepony is a little bit stressed’’ Rainbow Dash said with a smile and a wink.

''Well to start with, I have no idea where this pony you two saved came from, I have used up a lot of magic to fix him up and I haven't slept all night. And to finish it, because you scared me all of my research is drenched in coffee'' Twilight said in one breath.

Applejack trotted back towards the confused looking Rainbow Dash and tired looking Twilight, carrying a tray with two plates on it with breakfast on it, placing it on the table where Twilight was sitting. ''So what did I miss'' Applejack asked when she saw the stressed Twilight and the wet papers.

‘’Rainbow, what did you do’’ Applejack said while glaring at Rainbow Dash.

‘’Nothing! Misses up tight here is just very jumpy today’’ she said while ginning at Twilight.

Twilight sighed and let her head fall onto the wet papers. Rainbow Dash trotted to one of the chairs and sat down at the table, with a broad grin on her face. Applejack shrugged of the scene and started eating together with Rainbow Dash.

''You were right about eating first, I didn't even know I was this hungry'' Rainbow said to Applejack after she had finished their breakfast.

Twilight lifted her head, pieces of paper sticking to her forehead and her mane that was dripping wet with coffee. She took another napkin and dried her face and mane before sighing again.

''You two saw what happened, right? Maybe you can help me with this?'' Twilight asked desperately, ''I have no idea where he came from, just a dark swirl in the sky that closed immediately as he passed through. And how did he survive a fall like that, even if it was in the lake the forces should have pulverized his body. I have been up to the place where the dark swirl was with my balloon, but i couldn't find a single reading with my equipment. And there is also no data I can find around the lake...'' she explained and sighed again, ''It's like he generated from thin air, or came from another dimension or something like that. But both options are preposterous!''

Applejack and Rainbow Dash shared a confused look at each other checking of one of them knew what Twilight was talking about.

''Okay, so he is like an alien or something? He looked like a normal pony to me, even if he was messed up like that…'' Applejack said, breaking the awkward silent between the three friends.

''That is a possibility, but most unlikely'' Twilight mumbled while she rested her head of her front legs, ''but I am way too tired to think straight right now, I think I'll hit the hay. Maybe tomorrow I can figure out a bit more''

Twilight was getting ready to leave the table by picking up the few undamaged pieces of paper and putting them into her saddlebag, when suddenly a doctor ran it to the cafeteria towards the three mares.

''Miss Sparkle, he is awake!'’