Night of Change

The soft beeping of three pulse monitors and the breathing of six ponies were the only sounds in the Intensive Care unit. Rarity and Applejack were cuddled together on a provided couch. Pinkie Pie was sprawled out in a chair, snoring away.

Fluttershy was the first of the injured trio to regain consciousness, blinking her eyes open and looking around. Twilight lay next to her with IVs and a breathing tube trailing from her. Past the unicorn lay Rainbow Dash, likewise equipped.

The conscious mare took a moment to realize that one of her legs, both of her wings, and her chest were bound up and held immobile. She coughed on the breathing tube in her throat and tried to swallow, finding her throat incredibly dry. In an instant, Pinkie was awake and at her side with a glass of water. Gratefully, Fluttershy took the offered straw in her mouth and swallowed several small sips of cool water, "Th-thank you, Pinkie..." she whispered.

"No problemero, Shy! Rarity, AJ! Fluttershy's awake!" the party pony bounced happily.

The other two dozing ponies woke slowly, Rarity speaking first, "Pinkie, dear, do be a bit quieter. We are in a hospital after all..."

"Sorry, Rarity, I'm just glad she's finally awake!"

Fluttershy's eyes flickered back and forth as Applejack yawned, waking from her slumber. She smiled and asked, "How are Twilight and Rainbow Dash?"

A dark look crossed their features, even Pinkie's smile flinched downwards for a fraction of a second, "We'll let the doctor explain, now that you're awake," Rarity said before standing and exiting the room to summon the physician.

While they waited, Fluttershy drank some more water and worried. Thankfully, Twilight began to stir as the doctor entered, followed by Rarity. Hopefully, Rainbow would wake soon as well.

Twilight's struggle back to the waking world was not an easy one. Trying to discover words for the images and symbols flitting across her vision would take her months. She moaned as she opened her eyes, deciding the migraine was the worst part once the lights above hit her sensitive retinas. Squinting against the pain, she moved her right foreleg up to block the lights, noticing the tube trailing from it. She also realized there was a tube down her throat. She tried to speak, but only a rough rasp came out.

Rarity levitated a glass of water to her friend's parched lips as the doctor checked on Rainbow Dash, giving her time to quench her thirst. He looked over the readouts and nodded before turning to address the expectant ponies. "Well, I have to say I'm glad to see you two have regained consciousness. Would you like the good news or the bad news?"

"Ooh! Ooh! Good news is always good!" exclaimed Pinkie.

The doctor chuckled, "Alright then. The good news is that I expect both of you, Miss Sparkle, and Miss Fluttershy to make full recoveries. Miss Sparkle, you will need to take it easy with the magic for a while. You have, as the saying goes, blown a fuse. It'll take a while to heal, but you'll be back to casting spells with the rest of us unicorns eventually. Miss Fluttershy, you've got some broken bones, but nothing that can't be mended. You'll need some physical therapy after the casts come off, but otherwise you should be fine."

Twilight nodded, filing away the information for later. Her main concern at the time had to be for Rainbow Dash, "What's the bad news?" she asked with a concerned look to her friend.

"Ah, well," the doctor said, taking a deep breath, "Miss Sparkle, I'm afraid to tell you that... Well, we can't explain it, but you appear to have aged approximately ten years as well as lost all pigment in a good chunk of your mane and tail.

Twilight took a moment to let that information sink in. Aging a decade and having an interesting coloration to talk about was a small price to pay for having her friend alive and hopefully well.

"Wh-what about Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy asked.

"Miss Dash should be just fine once she wakes up," the doctor replied with a smile. As he began to exit, a soft moan escaped the mare's lips, "Ah, speak of the devil. Welcome back to the world of the waking, Miss Dash."

Rainbow fought her way through the murky sea of partial consciousness. Sound came back quickly and she responded with a weak smile and a cough to the doctor. She opened her eyes, expecting to see her friends gathered round. All she saw was nothingness. The pegasus knew her eyes were open, and forced herself to blink a few times. Her mouth went from the weak smile to a look of pure terror.

"Rainbow? What's wrong?" Twilight said from somewhere off to her right.

Dash gulped and felt a straw touch her lips. She took a few quick swallows managed to gasp out a few words, "I can't see."

The statement hung in the air in the exact way a brick shouldn’t. Nopony knew what to say. The doctor pulled out a flashlight and begin to shine it into the unseeing eyes of his patient.

"Is anypony still there?" she asked to the silence.

"We're all still here, Dash," AJ said from somewhere in front of her.

She felt a tingle of magic envelop her head briefly before she heard the doctor's voice again, "Miss Dash... You can't see anything?"

"Nothin', Doc. Absolute nothin'."

"I've never seen anything like this. All the parts are there, but none of them are working."

Twilight sighed, "It's my fault... The spell I used to save her life has a cost. The cost is different both for the caster and the recipient. I lost ten years of my life... She lost her sight."

"Twi? You... So I WAS really dead..."

"You were... I had to save you. I'm sorry. I'll do whatever I can to get your sight back as soon as I can."

"I've only ever heard of one spell that can do that, Miss Sparkle. I'm amazed somepony as young as you was able to cast it," the doctor put in.

Twilight nodded and stared at Dash with tears in her eyes. The pegasus continued to look around, unseeing, "I'm so sorry, Dash."

Dash tried to smile, though her eyes still expressed sadness, "H-hey! No worries, Twi. I'm alive, right? That... That's all that matters!" she said, trying to hide the sobs that were slowly forcing their way out.

The doctor excused himself and left the ponies to themselves. No one spoke for quite a while, until Pinkie finally perked up and produced a cake out of nowhere, "So who's ready for the 'Everypony's Alive and Awake' party!?"

Nopony really knew what to say, so nopony said anything. Pinkie distributed the cake and took it upon herself to feed Dash. The pegasus savored the cake, despite her inner turmoil.

"So... When can we get outta this dump? I need to stretch my wings!" she said with an off-tilt smile.

Pinkie laughed and everyone joined in after a few moments. That little pink pony’s laughter was infectious.

They all sat together and worked out what happened after the confrontation with the dragons. After the rainboom and a report that the dragons were fleeing after a crazy lightshow, everypony had spread out into the woods to search for the three mares. AJ managed to find them and get enough other ponies to carry them back to Ponyville. They'd been out for three days, but the town was safe and everypony was grateful for whatever it was they had done.

Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy with a knot in her gut. She had saved her friends and her home, but at a cost she was now regretting having to pay. Not her age or her manecolor, but the loss of Dash's sight and the cold blooded murder of a fully grown, intelligent dragon. It was an act she had hoped she would never have done, nor would do again. The fact of the matter grew clear. Whomever had performed the acts of that night, it was not Twilight Sparkle. Somepony else buried inside had done all that. It couldn’t have been her.

She thought for another few moments. The logic of the situation was clear. It had been her. There was no way around it. Twilight Sparkle, faithful student to Princess Celestia, had murdered a dragon. With a sigh, she pondered how to word the letter to her mentor. It was definitely a lesson nopony would forget.