Author's note- This is my first story posted on this site, so I understand if you don't think it's very good. Any constructive criticism would be very helpful, but no hate, please. Enjoy the story ^_^
"Twilight, wake up, please!" Spike yelled, with an unsettling sense of urgency in his voice.
"Mmmmfff, Spike, this is one of the few days I have off, so I would like to enjoy it in peace! Twilight murmured from underneath the bed sheets.
"I understand that, Twi, but you really need to get up!"
"Spike, I'm not going to ask you again, I am not in a very good mood this morning, so I would appreciate it if you would leave me alone!" Twilight said, flipping herself over, and covering her ear with her pillow.
"But Twiilight, you don't understand, it's an emergency!" Spike said, getting pretty desperate at this point.
"Urgh, what could possibly be the emergency? Did you run out of ice cream again?" Twilight said, as she turned at the baby dragon, whose face was covered in tears. she sighed, before saying, "Aww, Spike, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell, honest. What seems to be the problem?"
"Rarity is downstairs, she said that Fluttershy's in the hospital!"
"What?! Why didn't you just say that?!" Twilight yelled, practically leaping out of bed, throwing the sheets over Spike's head, as she galloped down the stairs, where she was greeted by a weeping Rarity. She had seen the diva cry many times before, but in this state, she looked completely destroyed emotionally, tears streaming down her face, her mane a disaster, and she didn't even care.
"Rarity, is it true? Fluttershy is in the hospital?"
Rarity looked up and stared Twilight right in her eyes, her vision blinded by her tears, and nodded slowly.
"What happened?"
Rarity cleared her throat, and attempted to speak coherently. "Earlier this morning, Fluttershy was rushed to the hospital, terribly sick with something."
"Do they know what it is?"
"I don't know anything other than that, they didn't have time to talk to me. It's almost visiting hours, so we might be able to speak to her." She said, losing her voice several times, swallowing, and taking quick gasps of air.
"Well, hopefully it isn't too serious." Twilight said, with slight assurance in her voice. Fluttershy was going to be alright, she kept telling herself. She tried to be optimistic, but something in her gut told her that this wasn't going to be good.
"Do the others know?"
Rarity looked up again, and sniffled. "The rest are at the hospital, waiting for the doctors to let them talk to her."
"Well then, let's head out then. Spike! Let's go, we're going to see Fluttershy!"
Spike finally made his way down the steps, head hunched over, not able to speak.
"Hopefully you all are getting worked up over nothing, and Fluttershy is going to be just fine. You'll see!" Twilight said, but she knew that she was practically lying to herself, and everypony around her.
When they finally arrived at Ponyville General Hospital, Twilight got an eerie feeling. She never did like the hospital. Ever since she was a foal, she had a never ending fear of hospitals, or anything affiliated with doctors in general. never wanting to step hoof in there unless it was absolutely necessary. Her parents would always tell her that it was a good place, where they would make you feel better, but to this day, she didn't believe them, always associating hospitals with death and sorrow. She would have to overcome that fear today, because she knew it would make Fluttershy happy to see all of her friends there to halp her get better.
"I hope to Celestia she's ok." Rarity said, with a large amount of worry in her voice.
"I'm sure everything's going to be just fine." Twilight said once again, starting to realise that she was practically wasting her breath at this point.
They walked through the big automatic doors to the hospital, and looked around at their surroundings. The lobby was a large and very open area, seemingly in a circular shape, all revolving around the round receptionist desk, which had ponies all around it, yelling at once. Some were doctors, others were sick patients, and others were just annoyed patients who think that they have waited for far too long.
They approached the desk with caution, trying not to get trampled by the dozens of ponies all moving and yelling at once, all seeming to be in a hurry. After a couple of minutes of standing still, they finally saw an opening in the crowd, and rushed through to finally be at eye contact with the single receptionist, who looked as if a train ran over her. She was a pale white unicorn, with a red cross as her cutie mark, and she looked stressed beyond belief. As she was running from one side of the desk to the other, Twilight got her attention.
"Um, excuse me, do you know where Fluttershy is staying?"
"Uhhhh, let me check." The receptionist said, as she rushed around the table, tossing papers around, looking through files, until she found the right one, and turned back to Twilight.
"She's staying at room 4C, right up the hall there." she said, pointing to a wide hallway with her free hoof.
"Um, thank you!" twilight said over the crowd, but she didn't hear her, so they just walked away, and headed down the hallway.
It was a complete change of scenery here than how it was in the lobby. In here, there were no ponies to be seen, and the only sound you could hear was your own hoofsteps. It seemed as if the hallway went on forever, the floor and the walls stretching all around them, but Twilight looked like the only one affected by this. The other two were in tears because of their friend, but Twilight had a very uneasy feeling that this was not going to turn out well.
They finally arrived to their destination, room 4C. There was a small window you could look in, and when they took a peek, they saw Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash standing around a bed, where a very sickly Fluttershy had been sleeping. Rarity pushed the door open, not too fast, because she didn't want to wake up Fluttershy. the others turned around, all with somber looks across their faces, but different levels of it. Applejack, who had her hat off, had a look of worry and concern, but she didn't look like she was going to shed a tear. She was too tough of a pony for that. Pinkie Pie, who Twilight was worried about the most, had her mane drooped down, and she had her dead down, only looking up at them with her eyes, which had tears in them. Rainbow dash was in a state of panic. She was pacing around the room, not being able to keep still, and she was whispering to herself, saying that none of this was real, or this couldn't be happening.
They all gathered around the bed when they heard Fluttershy stir awake, by opening her gentle eyes slowly, and looking around the room, seeing her friends there, to help her in her time of need. She started to smile, but it looked forced, because she was obviously in a lot of pain.
"...Fluttershy?" rainbow dash said softly, resisting the urge to yell it out in anger and worry.
Fluttershy was about to speak, when a doctor walked into the room.
"May I speak with the five of you for a moment?" He said, with a stern and serious tone. Everypony waved to Fluttershy as they walked out of the room. They all gathered in the hall, along with the doctor, and they listened intently.
"Is she gonna be O.K, doc?" Applejack said.
"I'm afraid I have some bad news for you all today." he said, taking a moment to catch his breath. "Your friend, miss Fluttershy, is terribly ill at the moment, as you can see. The problem is, we honestly can't figure out what's wrong with her. Her major organs are failing, one by one, and we have no way to stop it."
Dead silence. That was the only way to explain it. Nopony said a word, or even moved at that point.
"Can't- can't ya just use some magic to make her all better?" Applejack spoke up.
"Like I said, this is unlike anything we have ever seen before, and no magic that we know of has helped in any way."
"So what can we do?" Rainbow yelled. "We can't just sit here and let her die!"
"I'm sorry, miss, but we tried everything. The only thing you all can do is be with her, and make her last moments memorable." He said, before walking down the hallway, leaving the five friends in a horrible state.
"So what do we do now...?" Rainbow said, still not accepting what had just been said to her.
"We go in there and show Fluttershy how much we care about her." Twilight said.
So that's just what they did. They walked into the hospital room, where Fluttershy was lying in bed, crying, and her five best friends walked up to her.
"Hey, Fluttershy, why are you crying?" Rarity said.
"Because I don't know what's wrong with me... I'm in so much pain..." Fluttershy said softly, with fear in her voice.
"Hey, that's no way to think! You got us, right? Good friends are all you need!" Rainbow said optimistically, trying her best to make her friend feel better.
It apparently worked, because Fluttershy now had a smile on her face, and Rainbow smiled along with her.
"I... I feel so sleepy.." She said, just barely loud enough for anypony to hear her. However, the other five knew what that meant, so they just kept quiet about that subject.
"It'll be ok, I promise!" Twilight said, hoping for her sake that it was true, and a miracle happens. But deep down she knew that wasn't the case, and this very well may be the last time she sees her friend. so without any thought, Twilight moved closer and hugged Fluttershy, tears starting to stream down her face.
"You can't leave us, Fluttershy!" twilight yelled, loud enough for anypony in the hall to hear, thankfully there weren't any.
"Twilight's right!" Rainbow Dash said. "You're an element of harmony! We can't use the elements without you! Come on, Fluttershy, you're strong enough to pull through this!" she yelled, Not afraid to hold back the tears. "We can't lose you!" She finally said, before joining Twilight in the hug.
The rest of the ponies just stood there, still not believing that any of this was happening. The mere thought of losing one of their best friends was bad enough, but the fact that it was happening at that very second, was unfathomable.
And finally, with tears in her eyes, Fluttershy drew her last breath, and she was gone...
Nopony said a word. It was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop, as the old cliché would say.
".....NO!!!" Rainbow screamed, as she hopped away from the bed and burst out the door as fast as she could. Rarity fainted, and both Pinkie Pie and Applejack shook their head and walked out of the room, both of their heads drooping down.
Twilight just sat there on the cold floor, with a very scary feeling of calmness and tranquility. She sat there for a very long time, before Spike walked up to her and said, "I'll be waiting for you when you get home. Take your time, Twi."
Twilight didn't respond, as he left the room, leaving her alone. She thought for quite a while, screaming in her mind that she knew hospitals were a place for death and sorrow. she knew there could have been a way to save Fluttershy... Why didn't they do anything? she kept asking herself, before finally getting up and walking out the back door of the hospital, after realising that it was getting dark, and she should get home and feed Spike.
As she walked away from that horrid place, she noticed a pony at the top of a hill. After closer examination, she realised it was Rainbow Dash. She walked up the hill, and sat down next to her.
"What are we going to do, Twi..? What the BUCK are we gonna do?!" She yelled.
"We can try to move on, it's all that we can do." Twilight said, not being able to come up with a better response.
"Who's gonna take care of her animals?" Rainbow asked, not even wanting to say her name out loud.
"We can all try to work together to make sure that they're happy."
"I hope so..." Rainbow said. "I loved her,,,"
"I know, Rainbow, we all know. I also know how this must be affecting you the most."
"Damn right it is! Why did she have to leave us?!"
"I honestly don't know, I guess it was her time to go..." Twilight said, immediately regretting it, as Rainbow Dash looked at her with a bad look, before she flew off into the night sky.
She was alone now, alone with her thoughts... Twilight didn't like this fact at all, as she was very afraid as to what she might think of. She knew very well that there must have been a way to help Fluttershy, that the doctors deliberately didn't do anything about it. she had no clue why they would do something like that, and she wasn't sure she wanted to find out, but she knew one thing, and that was that her and her friends would have no choice but to move on for the moment, and try to repair what was damaged.
she got up, and made her way back to her house, with the thought continuing to scratch at her brain. Why didn't they help her? Why did they just let her die?
...Why would they take away an element of harmony?
