A Soldiers Story: Somewhere Over the Rainbow

One Month Later…

The sun shone brightly through the curtains, illuminating the hospital room that housed its lone occupant. John laid there on the bed, unresponsive to the outside world, but still alive. Nurse Redheart walked around the room, checking over his limp body and taking his pulse every fifteen minutes. Sighing to herself, she gave a long look at him. Although the Princesses revival had been successful, the human, who Redheart learned was named John, had still not woken up from his coma.

Redheart frowned at that thought. It had been nearly a month since the Battle for Canterlot, and most of the wounded soldiers had already recovered, including Rainbow Dash. When she had learned that John had still not recovered yet, she had done everything in her power to help him in any way. She would clean him, change his bedsheets when they had moved him, and she would stay up very late, carefully watching over him. However, they all knew that it could not last forever. When the Princess ordered them to go home, Rainbow had practically begged to stay with John. When the Princess politely denied, she flew over to the hospital and demanded to see John. Redheart remembered the pure look of determination as Rainbow told her that, if she couldn’t see him, then she would force their hand by fighting them. Redheart almost had to call a guard, but then she saw Rainbow’s face soften from one of rage, to one of sadness with a tint of fear. Finally, the two of them agreed that she could have an hour to see him.

And what an hour it was.

For the entire time, Rainbow had been by his bed, talking to him about anything she could think of. She talked to him about herself, mainly her involvement with the Elements and her role within the Wonderblots. She talked about the reconstruction of Canterlot and how the entire city was in his debt for what he had done. She then spoke about Ponyville and that she would like it if he came with her home. She told him of all of the neat things that they could do together. She spoke about her friends, and how she was glad that they were all together again.

Yet, by far the most interesting moment of the hour was the last five minutes.

In those five minutes, Redheart experienced a complete shift in Rainbow Dash’s attitude. As the visit went on, she noticed that Rainbow’s voice became more panicked and scared. It all came to a head when she was talking about how rainbows were made. She was talking like she normally does when she suddenly stopped speaking. Redheart had raised her head from her clipboard, wondering what had happened. She then witnessed something that she never saw Rainbow do before. Rainbow looked at the man, tears finally welling up in her eyes, when she finally let the floodgates loose. She buried her head deep in his chest and began to bawl. She begged him to wake up, to come back to her. She expressed how scared she was that he would never wake up again. Redheart, witnessing the display, almost had to call in some staff to remove her from him, but out of fear, she decided against it.

Yet, despite all of that, the last couple of minutes showed Redheart a side of Rainbow Dash that she had never seen before. She remembered that moment well.

“Y-You’ll be okay though,” Rainbow choked out, a faint smile forming on her muzzle,” I know that you will! You are to awesome to die from that.” She removed her head from his chest, bringing her face up to his head, staring at his closed eyes. “W-When you get to Ponyville, I’ll be waiting for you. I’ll help you with whatever you want.” She brought her face even closer to his, close enough where her breath washed over his face. “All that I ask,” she whispered as she brought her lips towards his, “is that you’ll stay with me.” With that, she closed the distance and connected their lips. The kiss was not filled with erotic passion, but was filled with love and emotion.

And with that, her time was up.

That kiss had caught Redheart off guard. Thinking back to all of the times she had treated her, she always remembered how she pushed away hugs (except when it was from Pinkie Pie, mainly because that was impossible to do) due to not being “sappy”. But now, as she glanced at the unconscious man, she began to believe that she was not telling the truth. After all, a mare only behaves like Rainbow did when they are in love. “Whoever this man is,” Redheart thought, “he must mean everything to Rainbow.” However, as she pondered these thoughts, she failed to notice the man’s eyes open

His eyes opened, before quickly shutting them due to the blinding light. He felt like he had just woken up in his tent somewhere in Czechoslovakia. He groaned, a sudden migraine piercing his head. Opening his eyes for the second time, he surveyed the room. For starters, he definitely was not on Tenth Street anymore. He laid on a comfy bed, the first bed that he had laid down on for months. He was in a white room with cabinets and jars laid across the counter, filled to the brim with cotton balls, popsicle sticks, and other medical equipment. He looked over to the window, only to be greeted with blue skies and white puffy clouds.

Turning his attention to the center of the room, he noticed another pony pacing about the room. She had white fur and wore a tight hospital uniform. The red cross on her hat seemed to suggest that he was in some kind of medical center. She appeared to be distracted at the moment, constantly looking down at the floor as she mumbled things under her breath. Suddenly, another bolt of pain from his migraine made him groan in pain, grabbing the mare’s attention.

“Oh, sweet Celestia! You’re awake!” the white mare exclaimed, rushing over to the table to grab her stethoscope, and returning quickly to John’s bed.

“I wish I wasn’t,” John whispered to himself, earning a slight chuckle from him before putting a hand on his forehead as another ripple of pain shot through him.

“How are you feeling?” the white mare asked, bringing the stethoscope to his chest.

“Ugh, like I just got nicked by a bullet. God, this headache is killing me.” John replied, rubbing his forehead with his left hand.

“Well,” the white mare responded, listening closely to his heart, “a coma will do that to you.”

“Wait,” John pondered, gaining a look from the mare, “a coma?” She nodded his head while John’s gears in his brain began to work again. “How long was I out for?”

“Well…” the mare began, while removing the stethoscope from his chest, “I don’t know how I should tell you this but… you’ve been out for a month.”

That sudden bombshell temporarily lifted the fog from his migraine, allowing his brain to work at maximum capacity. “ONE MONTH?!” John shouted, looking around the room before spotting the window. Despite the mare’s protests, John jumped out of the bed, and rushed over to the window. Throwing open the rest of the curtains, he was greeted with a surprising sight.

The city of Canterlot stood before him, but not in the way he had remembered it. Smoke no longer rose out of collapsed buildings. Magic bolts no longer flew across the sky. Buildings looked repaired and reinforced, no doubt to prevent another attack. The Equestrian flag flew proudly on top of government buildings. The Royal Castle loomed over the city in the distance, appearing to be undergoing repairs.

John looked back at the white mare, and angry look plastered on her face. “Heh, all these nurses are the same,” John thought to himself, remembering his experiences with nurses in the past. “Where exactly am I?” John asked her.

“Well, you are in the Royal Guard Recovery Ward right now, located on the east side of Canterlot. I am Nurse Redheart, and will you please get back to the bed. You need to rest.” Redheart then grabbed him by the hand and led him back to the bed.

“Ugh, fine. But can you get me some aspirin? I’ve got a killer headache,” John replied, sitting down on the surprisingly comfy bed.

“Well,” Redheart began, walking to a cabinet and opening it, “I have no idea what aspirin is, but I do have some stuff that can help with that headache of yours. Give me a moment to fetch it.” She then walked out of the room, disappearing in the halls of the hospital.

John let out a sigh, letting all the tension that occurred over the past couple of weeks to fully register in his brain. Bringing up his hands to his head, he began to rub his throbbing head. As he rubbed, he could not help but think of the war back in Europe, and everything that he had seen. Images flashed inside of his head, showing decomposing bodies, skinny men, dismembered limbs laying in the streets, and bullets flying through the black sky, mowing down his fellow brothers. A single tear streamed down his face.

“It’s over now,” John thought to himself as he rubbed his head, “but could I have done a better job? Could I have saved more people?” John faintly heard the nurse re-enter the room, but he paid no attention to it. Instead, the images of the war became more intensified, showing all of those that he had failed to save. His brothers… his friends… More tears flowed from his eyes, as he remembered that body of that boy that he saw in Czechoslovakia.

“…Sir? Is everything alright?” Redheart asked, looking at John with concern. When she had reentered the room, she noticed John covering his face, hearing him mumble something to himself. He looked up at her, and she noticed the stains of tears cover his head.

Rubbing his eyes, John quickly looked away before saying, “Yeah… I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?” Redheart asked him, slowly walking towards him, “If you need something then let me-“

“I SAID I’M FINE,” John suddenly shouted, causing Redheart to jump back a bit. John’s eyes suddenly changed from one filled with remorse to one filled with rage and anger in an instant. In fact, it was so sudden, she thought that he would attack her. His breathing became heavy, as he tried to control his emotions. A single tear shed from his eye, softly falling from his freshly scarred cheek.

A couple minutes passed where all they did was just look at each other. Redheart knew that something was clearly wrong with him, but whatever it was, he clearly did not want help. Whatever he had seen, whatever he had done, he had closed it off inside his mind. “Poor soul. He must be terrified.” Redheart thought to herself as she stared at him. She broke the silence when she said, “Well… if you need anything, just let me know.” She then turned around, placed the pills on the counter, and exited the room, leaving John to his lonesome.

John sighed as he brought his hand up to his face, rubbing his sorrow filled eyes. “ I should not have snapped at her like that.” John thought to himself, wiping off the tear streaks from his face. Standing up, he noticed that he felt considerably weaker than normal. Looking down at his legs, he noticed bandages wrapped tightly around his right side. “Damn,” he thought to himself as he looked at the white bandages, “I must have been hit harder then I thought.”

Looking at the door, John strode over to it; carefully not putting any pressure on one leg. Reaching for the knob, he slowly opened the door and peered off into the hallway. Looking back at the table, John saw the rations left on the table. “Yeah, there is no way in hell that I am eating that,” John whispered to himself as he slipped out into the empty halls, working his way towards his primary target; the kitchen.