Lightning's Life

~ Canterlot Hospital ~

Lightning's eyes snapped open as she woke up, quickly looking around the hospital room. After remembering where she was, she leaned her head back on the pillows and calmed down. They weren't in the forest anymore. It had been a few hours since the girls had been rescued, and she had finally gotten to sleep. Just as she was closing her eyes again, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Lightning said, sitting up in the bed. She gasped when her dad came in the room, quickly running over to her side and wrapping her into a hug.

“Dad!” she hugged him extremely tightly. “I thought you didn’t make it.”

“Oh no,” her dad said, sitting down next to the bed in a chair. “I thought I had lost you.”

Lightning sat back on the bed. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” her dad replied. “They found me a few hours after the crash, and a few other survivors as well. But unfortunately…not everyone was so lucky. Many of the people on the train didn’t survive. I thought you were one of them until today. Do you remember what happened?”

“Yeah, think so,” Lightning said. She remembered getting rescued, and then being taken to the hospital, but then being separated from Minty and Frosty once they arrived. Minty had passed out just after being rescued. Suddenly, Lightning had a thought. “Wait, the other girls. I was out there with my frien- I mean, some girls I knew. Are they-”

“I don’t know, I came to your room as soon as I found out where you were,” her dad explained.

“I need to go find them,” Lightning said, getting out from under the covers.

“Lightning, wait-”

“I’m fine,” she reassured her dad. “I need to check on those girls.”

~.~.~.~.~.~

Melon Mint was lying in bed in her own hospital room, just having woken up about 15 minutes before. There was a knock on the door. “Who is it?”

Lightning walked inside, waving to her.

“Hey Dusty,” she smiled at Lightning and her dad. “How are you doing?”

“I’m fine,” Lightning said, sitting down on the bed. “What about you?”

Minty sighed. “I’m pretty good.” She paused for a minute, looking around. “How…did we get out of there?” she asked.

“Someone found us,” Lightning said. “I heard them, remember? You were about to pass out too, but then we heard someone’s voice, and we were calling to them for about 5 minutes. But just as they found us, you passed out. I didn’t have hypothermia quite yet, but they said I probably would have if I’d been out there for another few minutes. The search party said they’d been looking for survivors since the day the train crashed, but just couldn’t find any of us.”

Minty nodded. “Oh, okay. What about Frosty, how is she?”

“I haven’t seen her yet, think I’ll go visit her now,” Lightning said as she got up to leave the room, closing the door behind her.

~.~.~.~.~.~

A few minutes later, Lightning and her dad walked up to a door and she knocked on it a few times.

“Come in,” a voice called.

Lightning opened the door and walked inside to see Frosty sitting on the hospital bed. Frosty looked at her strangely like she was expecting someone else. “Hey, what are you doing here?” She asked.

“I just…wanted to talk to you,” Lightning said, sitting down awkwardly on the bed beside her.

“I’m doing fine,” Frosty responded. “What about you?”

“Pretty good,” Lightning told her. “They wrapped up my ankle and said it’s just a sprain. Should heal soon.”

“That’s good,” Frosty said. “What happened? Did you guys pass out too?”

Lightning laughed. “Are you kidding? I’m way too cool to pass out. Determination goes a long ways.”

Frosty rolled her eyes. Then there was another knock on the door, and Minty came in. “Hey Dusty,” she said. “Just saw you coming this way.”

“Yeah, just had a few things to tell you guys,” Lightning said. “So, we all made it. I told you we would.”

Frosty smiled. “Well, then, everything is back to normal.”

“Yeah, normal,” Lightning said. “About that, why did you guys come to find me?” She paused, then continued. “You thought you’d be rescued if you stayed there, so you had no reason to come and find me.”

They glanced at each other. “Well, we um…” Minty began. “We didn’t want something to happen to you.”

“Why not?” Lightning asked, standing up. “That’s what I don’t get. Why do you care? We’re not friends, you guys don’t want to be friends-”

“Actually, that’s not true,” Frosty spoke up. “We really want to try again. This is…actually what I was gonna talk to you about on the train car all those days ago. We really miss you, and…it looks like you kind of need us, too. I mean, how many views did your last video get?”

“I don’t need you,” Lightning said defensively, then looked at them. “But yeah, you know, it might be cool to hang out again.”

Just then, there was another knock on the door before a man came inside.

“Hello, my name is Rainy Day,” the man introduced himself. “I’m the one who found you girls out in the forest. How do you all feel now? Better?”

“Warmer, that’s for sure,” Lightning answered.

“You look a whole lot warmer,” Rainy said. “I just decided I’d stop in and give you some information we learned about the train accident.”

“What things?” Frosty asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, the crash was caused by damaged brakes,” he explained. “They suddenly stopped working out on the ride.”

Lightning furrowed her eyebrows. “Don’t they check those things before taking people out?!” she raised her voice.

“They did,” Rainy answered quickly. “It seemed alright at the time before they sent the train out, and something must have happened to the brakes out on the tracks somewhere. No one is to blame.”

Minty sighed, then speaking up. “How many other people survived?”

Rainy looked at the ground. “You 3, and 7 or 8 others,” he responded. “But everyone else…didn’t make it. Many of the survivors were…thrown off the train. And then it kept going. That’s what happened in the last 2 cars.”

Minty took a shaky breath, thinking of all the kids she had seen. Everyone they had waited in line with at the station, all so happy and full of excitement, with no idea of what was to come.

“Well, thank you for stopping in Rainy,” Frosty told him.

“Of course,” he smiled back heading for the door. “Merry Christmas, everyone.” He closed the door leaving the girls in silence, not quite sure what to say.

“Well, I’ll see you guys after the holidays,” Lightning got up to leave.

“Hey, wait,” Frosty stopped her, remembering what Minty had told her the day before. “Um…my aunt and uncle just called and they’re coming to pick me up soon, and tomorrow we’re gonna do something for Christmas dinner. I know, you’re not really interested in holidays or anything, but if you want to stop in for a few minutes…you’re definitely welcome.”

Lightning turned back to her and smiled slightly. “We’ll see.” With that, she left the room and saw her dad waiting outside. “Okay, we’re good to go,” she told him as they headed for the hospital exit.

“What took so long?” her dad asked.

“Oh, just talking about what happened,” she replied. “Hey, so what are we doing tomorrow evening?”

“I was thinking we could have Christmas dinner like we usually do,” he said. “If that’s alright with you. After all that’s happened, I think you would want to do something calm for once. You also need to take it easy until your ankle is better.”

Lightning laughed. He knew her too well. She never followed her doctor’s orders and got re-injured most times by doing things she was restricted from. “I know, I know,” she told him. “I’ll give it a few days this time. About tomorrow, Frosty invited me over to her place in the evening. You want to come?”

“That sounds great,” her dad said as they reached the car. He opened the door for her. “But I thought last you told me, you weren’t getting along with them anymore.”

“Oh, we’re fine now,” she said, getting in the car. It was true. When you have an experience like they did, it really makes you think about things differently. Maybe some things do happen for a reason.

⚡⭐⚡⭐⚡⭐⚡⭐⚡⭐