Chapter 3

Chapter 3

It had been several days since Twilight had discovered Applejack's memorial and she hadn't said a word or accepted any visitors to her room. Rainbow had been quietly waiting outside for her since she had been kicked out, sadly not being admitted. It was with some trepidation that Rainbow left for the train station, hearing that her family was coming to see Twilight. Thankfully, no hooves were pointed when she met them or when she told them of her current condition, instead she was greeted with a very happy Shining Armour and Cadence along with Twilights mother and father. After she had led them both to the hospital and gone to check whether Twilight was awake or not when she heard a voice coming from Twilight's room, she quietly snuck up to the door to listen.

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine

You make me happy when skies are gray

You'll never know dear, how much I love you

Please don't take my sunshine away.

The other night dear, as I lay sleeping

I dreamed I held you in my arms

But when I awoke, dear, I was mistaken

So I hung my head and I cried.

As Twilight sang, Rainbow silently opened the door and made her way to Twilight's bedside, sitting down next to her.

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine

You make me happy when skies are gray

You'll never know dear, how much I love you

Please don't take my sunshine away.

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine

You make me happy when skies are gray

You'll never know dear, how much I love you

Please don't take my sunshine away.

Please don't take my sunshine away.

Please don't take my sunshine away.

Without turning from the window, Twilight addressed Rainbow, “I was knocked unconscious from the first explosion so I don't know what happened afterwards. I also know liquid rainbow isn't usually lethal in small quantities like I had in that box. Do you remember anything after I was knocked out?”

Rainbow sighed and took a deep breath. “I do Twi', I remember it all. I haven't been able to forget. It haunts my dreams and my every action.”

“Rainbow,” Twilight responded, slightly nervous about what could be so bad to haunt Rainbow’s actions for eight whole years, “would you tell me what happened after I was knocked out?”

~~ The day of the lab accident

“Hold on Rainbow, I'll get ya out of here and go back fer Twi', just don't go passing out on meh” Applejack told Rainbow Dash as she hauled her up the stairs, through the rainbow colored smoke and towards the main floor. When she arrived at the main floor she took her bearings and headed for the front door, once out she saw most of the town gathering and screamed for someone to get the doctor. “Yer gonna be alright Rainbow, I gotta go back fer Twi' now, someone’ll be along to help in a sec.” Rainbow tried to scream at Applejack not to go back in but could only whimper, the pain along her back from trying to breath deeply wouldn't let her. She watched and waited helplessly for a minute, before the library was wracked with another explosion. The side of the tree seemed to disintegrate and the tree toppled over towards the side that had blown away.

~~ Present Day

“I blacked out after the tree fell, everything else I know from the papers.” Rainbow took a deep breath, “After the tree fell rescue ponies were able to get to the basement where they found Applejack lying over you, her back was burnt and she was barely conscious. From what I understand, she fought and screamed at them to take you up first. The papers said she was screaming about saving her mare, that you were more important than she was. They took you up together, I can bring you pictures of the rescue if you want.” Rainbow was a little fidgety, “After you both arrived she slipped into a coma for about a month. We had you both put in the same room, we thought it would help you both out.”

Twilight sat there thoughtfully, “Does anyone know what the second explosion was? Also, from the sound of her injuries, Applejack should have made it, liquid rainbow usually isn't lethal except in large quantities. I know that in its gas form the lethality goes up but it shouldn't have killed.”

“Twi', the second explosion was most probably your reserves of liquid rainbow. Nopony is a hundred percent sure why, but your reserves of liquid rainbow went up as well. It might not have been too bad if she hadn't gone back for you, but because she went back in unprotected, she received a larger dose than anypony else but you. She didn't stay in a coma as long you but  it eventually caught up to her.” Rainbow bowed her head and wrapped her arms around herself, “All she could talk about while she was bedridden was how she didn't mind dying because she had saved the most important mares in her life.”

Twilight sat with a thoughtful look on her face, “Rainbow, that song I was singing before, I learned it from her.” Twilight hummed a little with nostalgic look on her face. “Do you remember the smarty pants doll incident?” Rainbow nodded her head in confirmation. “Do you remember how I locked myself in the library for the better part of three weeks after it?” Rainbow looked up, “Kinda, I was always curious as to why.”

“Well, that's a story from my Canterlot days, and we can save it for later, but while I was in the library, Applejack was the only one who got in. She stayed with me the entire time trying to comfort me and help me sleep. That was the song she sang to me to sleep with every night. Thinking back, that was probably when I first began to fall in love with her.” Twilight's lips curled up in a tiny smile. “Even though I was so depressed and dejected, Applejack stayed with me and comforted me with that song. Every time my tears started she would sing that song till I stopped. She told me about how her mom taught her the song and her mom's mom taught her. She told me how she used to sing it to Applebloom when she would have nightmares. I don't know why I remember it now but it helps the pain from losing her.” Twilight began humming it as Rainbow Dash sat with slightly misty eyes.

“Twilight,” Rainbow Dash began, “Applejack loved you to the end. Everypony had their suspicions about you two after she was caught sleeping by your side while you were in a coma. Not to mention how she refused to leave your room and forced the doctors to allow you two to stay together. This was all after she woke up from the coma she had fallen in. I remember that first day after she woke up and how she spent it curled up next you in your bed. The doctors tried to get her away from you to check on your condition, but ended up doing her check up around her.” Rainbow giggled a bit. “The doctors didn't have a clue what to do, they tried repeatedly to get her to a new room and they always found her back in here, even though she was so weak.” Rainbow had a nostalgic look on her face as she reminisced. “Me you and her had sleepovers all the time. Me and AJ would gather in your room and sleep by your side, man it made the doctors so nervous whenever they found us like that. I think its how people figured out you and her were a couple. It was either that or her donating her heart to you.” Rainbow slapped her hoof into her mouth suddenly. Twilight's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates.

“Did you just say she gave me her heart?” Rainbow looked away, “I wasn't supposed to tell you, but yeah.” Twilight sat back and took a deep breath. “So when did she do that?”

Rainbow breathed deeply, “About two years after you had gone into a coma, she had begun to deteriorate and your heart had been getting weaker for a while. She offered hers to you since she knew she wouldn't be long for this world. The doctors said by the time she was eligible her heart would be unacceptable due to the rainbow gas. I never saw her look so determined as she did for what she said next. She told them to switch your hearts, she knew she was dead either way but if they did that, she would have time to say goodbye to everypony one last time. The doctors were hesitant but she somehow got them to do it, I was never able to figure out how, none of us could. She lived for a month after the switch, and the heart she gave you grew stronger inside you. It's probably why you made it till now.”

Twilight was speechless, Applejack had given her her heart in every way possible. She rubbed her hoof over her heart, “So she sacrificed a year of her life just so I wouldn't die, how could she do that to me? I would rather have joined her-” She was stopped in mid sentence by a hard slap from Rainbow Dash. Head reeling at the contact whilst trying to focus on what was now being yelled at her, “DON’T YOU DARE THINK THAT! DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT WAS FOR ALL OF US TO ACCEPT HER DECISION? SHE KNEW THAT YOU WOULD BE ABLE TO FIND HAPPINESS WITHOUT HER! SHE TRUSTED YOU TO CARRY ON FOR HER AND TO REMEMBER HER! DON'T YOU DARE THINK LIKE THAT!” Rainbow Dash, unable to continue, stormed out in tears.

~~

Not five minutes later, Twilight was woken from her stupor by the door slamming open and admitting her father followed by Shining Armour and Cadence, “TWILIGHT SPARKLE! YOU HAVE SOME NERVE, NEARLY GETTING YOURSELF KILLED AND LETTING US FIND OUT THROUGH THE NEWSPAPER!” Twilight sat transfixed by her dad as screamed himself out over the course of the next few minutes. When her dad finally finished screaming at her and was pausing for breath, Shining Armour and Cadence leant across Twilight, murmuring “It’s great to see you awake at last Twilight.”

After Shining and Cadence stood themselves up, Twilight looked her father straight in the eye and apologized. The effect could almost be heard as her dad deflated like a balloon and broke into tears. “Twilight...” he walked over to her and wrapped her in his arms, “Thank you. I don't deserve it, I chased you from home because of your filly fooling and then you nearly died. I may not be okay with your unnatural tendencies but I...” He choked on his tears a bit as Cadence had smacked him in the back of the head, “will look past my prejudices for my daughter. I can't accept your filly fooling...” Cadence smacked Twilight's father again, “but please allow this old man back into your life. I won't hinder your happiness or chase away your marefriends. I can't promise I will ever accept it but given time I believe I will be able to look past it and my father and mother's teaching about it and love my daughter anyway.” As he finished he lay his head in her lap and began sobbing like a child. “I can't ever make up for the way I treated you after I found out you were a filly fooler, trying to send you away to be fixed...” There was a sharp gasp from Cadence but Shining held her back, “if your mom hadn't stepped in you and stopped me you never would have become the great pony you are, but I feel as though I caused this accident by chasing you away because of your filly fooling ways. I know it's dumb of me to think that, but I know that in some way, you were running from me. Your mom shared all the news she got from you over the years with me, it made me realize that I had to try and look past the prejudices I had been raised with and reach out to my only daughter, but I was too stubborn for my own good.” Twilight's fathers words became intelligible as the sobs took over.

“Twilight, dear, I see your father beat me here.” Twilight's mother stood at the door to her room smiling gently. “It really was hard on him, these past eight years.” Shining and Cadence both walked up to Twilight with their mother. “Yeah, dad was livid about the filly foolery rumors in the paper...” He paused and stepped a little bit further from Cadence, “but after he read about the coma and the chances of you returning being so small, he seemed to forget about the filly foolery and was only concerned for you. He nearly quit his job when they tried to tell him he couldn't take a vacation to come see you, the police had to get involved to prevent him from doing anything. It was hilarious.”

Twilight put a hoof on her dad's head, “He really does care for me, I always knew he did somewhere in his heart, but after he found out and his threats to me, I left without a word or letter to him. I can't imagine how hurt he must have been when I told him that I never wanted to talk to him again before I left for Ponyville. The first words I had spoken to him since the fight we had before I moved into the dorms at the magic school. That fight was probably the worst fight I have ever had with a pony I love, part of me has always regretted that fight, but I was just too stubborn to admit it. To stubborn to admit that he was my dad and too stubborn to admit I loved him whether accepted all of me or not. I imagine it was the same for him. Seeing him like this though, makes me know for sure that I was right. That even though we don't see eye to eye about life doesn't mean he never loved me” Her dad looked up at her as she said this.

“Twilight, I will make every effort to be the father I should have been. It might take me a while but I will do everything I didn't do before. I had eight long years to to think about it, and I though I can never get the lost years back I will do everything I can to make the rest of them count.” Her father's sobs had subsided and he was trying to compose himself, “I will learn to shrug off my distaste of you bringing mare's home instead of stallions, I will learn to be there for you like I never was in that past. Most of all, I will love you no matter what you do and I will never let you go again, I will never let us drift apart like we have been ever since you first brought a mare friend home. Never again.” There was a sudden popping sound and Twilight found she couldn't see a thing threw a tiny foal buddy now firmly attached to her face. “Umm? Does anypony know anything about this blue foal stuck to my face?” Everyone but Twilight broke down into fits of laughter.

“Aunt Sleeping Princess, you’re awake, now we can play.” The tiny blue foal dropped from the face hug into her lap and began shake from side to side. “Twilight, meet Crystal Twilight, your niece.” Shining and Cadence chimed at the same time. “She has a knack for diffusing serious situations and calming people down.” Cadence leaned into Shining, “Ponies that was getting mushier than even you and I are.”

Twilight was breathless for second before scooping up the foal and squeezing him in a massive hug, “Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod you are adorable.” Twilight could barely contain her excitement, she had been looking forward to her brothers children since the wedding. “She is adorable!”

“Aunt Sleepy, are you okay? Your eyes are leaking.” Crystal asked as she put a hoof on Twilight's cheek.

“Yes Crystal I am. I am just so happy right now, my brother has a child and I have made up with my dad. This is the greatest day I have had since I woke up.” Twilight said with the biggest grin as she nuzzled the baby foal.

“Cadence, this is weird, Crystal never stays in one place this long.” Shining said as he leaned into Cadence. “It was definitely a good idea to bring her, but have you ever seen her this still before.” The foal suddenly popped out from between Twilight's hooves and onto her head where she snuggled into her mane and fell asleep. “Okay that is adorable, but doesn't explain the lack of running around insanely. Though she always did like Twily's mane when we came to visit.” Cadence and Shining leaned against each other and sighed, “I have waited eight years for us to be together again, as a family, and it feels so right, even here in a hospital room.”

Rainbow cleared her throat loudly making everypony jump. “I know this is a touching moment and all but- ummm- I can I say something to Twi'.” Twilight looked at Rainbow and laughed, “Rainbow if it's to apologize about what happened earlier don't, I am the one who should be sorry. I lost it when I realized how I was still alive, and you were right about everything” Rainbow shook her head slowly as she walked up to Twilight and hugged her. “It's okay we were all saddened by her decision but we have had more time to accept it than you did, I should have been more calm about things.”

Twilight's father grew sheepish as he watched them hug. “Rainbow may I ask what you are referring to?” Rainbow looked up and sighed, “Yea, it's about the heart switch the doctors did.” Twilight's father took a deep breath, “So she really went through with it, I didn't think the doctors would let her. I guess I really did help her out there, the doctors were hesitant even after I talked to them. Twilight before you scream or get mad at me know that she wrote me several letters asking me to help her get the doctors to do it.” Every pony in the room looked at him speechless. “I know you all might be mad at me for helping Applejack sacrifice her life for our daughter but she was so adamant about it. If you remember that vacation I took honey, it was a few years ago, that was to meet Applejack and talk to her. I was against it at first, I was mad that she and my daughter were in such an immoral relationship but she helped me see how much she cared for my daughter. After I spent some time with her I helped her convince the doctors to go through with it and switch their hearts.” He placed a hand on Twilight's chest, “I think she helped me more than any pony in getting over my age old prejudices, she had the purest love for another I have ever seen. I hope you can forgive me for helping her go through with it Twilight.”

“Father, I can't bring myself to be mad, I want to be but she wanted it more than you from the sound of it. You said her love was pure, I never thought I would hear you ever say that about two mares in love, that alone speaks enough to me to let me know how much she moved you.” Twilight wrapped her dad in a hug, “Thank you for helping her give me her legacy and love. I will cherish the heart she gave me even more knowing it helped me rekindle my bond with my father.” Everpony in the room was silent as they wrapped each other in a massive group hug.

“It's great to have you back.”