There has to be a way to fix this. By Celestia there has to be a way. The young purple unicorn looks through all of her books in the library frantically pulling out any one that would in anyway find the answer she was looking for.
“Twilight, you have to calm down…” The growing purple dragon beside her tries to reason.
“No, I can’t Spike! Don’t you see? She’s dying and it’s my fault! I should fix this!” The unicorn’s eyes never leave the bookshelves.
“Twilight…” Spike’s voice is calm and flat, deceiving his emotions at the moment. “Stop trying to find a way to fix this. You should be with her.” He states and the unicorn freezes. She bows her head, her magic that was encasing a few books above her releases and the books crash to the floor.
“You’re right Spike.” Her voice has a defeated tone in it. “I don’t think books can help her…”
--
The walls in the room are a boring shade of white. They resemble clouds in a way. She misses the clouds. She closes her eyes slowly and remembering what it was like to fly with the clouds, to dance with them high above the earth.
She opens her eyes and sees the walls taunting her. Sighing, she rolls over as much as she can. She faces the door. Any minute now the nurse will walk in with the lame hospital food. And like every other day the nurse will ask how she is feeling and like every day she’ll respond with a: “how do you think?” and the nurse will sadly smile and then check her IV and heart monitors.
How badly she wanted to stretch her wings. The cyan pegasus shifts her weight so she can stretch a wing. It wasn’t to full length, for then it would pull all of the wires and tubes out of her. And as if on cue, the nurse walks in. But today was different.
“Miss. Dash, you have a visitor.” The nurse states and behind her walks up a very tired looking violet unicorn. The pegasus sits up in bed as the nurse bows out.
“It’s you.” States the pegasus lying in the bed giving a harsh glare at her visitor.
“Yeah, I’m sorry I couldn’t come earlier.” The unicorn avoids her gaze and suddenly becomes entranced by the tile floor beneath her hooves. Suddenly the pegasus’ glare softens as she takes in the sight of the unicorn.
“Hey, I’m sorry for blowing up at you like that earlier.” She sighs. “I guess I am a hot-head.” She smiles a bit but the unicorn doesn’t see it.
“I tried finding a cure…” The unicorn mumbles.
“Twilight. I told you, the doctor’s told you. There is no cure.” Came the sad and defeated voice from the bed.
“There has to be a cure!” The unicorn snaps her head up staring at the pegasus with a strong gaze. The element of pure magic, the very pony that the princess herself took as her personal protégée, the pony who has stopped disaster with her bare hooves, the pony that goes by Twilight Sparkle, sobs as she gazes at her friend.
“There isn’t.” Came the stoic voice. The unicorn’s tears blurred the image of the cyan pegasus with the normally kaleidoscopic mane.
“But it was my fault! If it wasn’t for me you wouldn’t be here!” Twilight’s sadness turned to rage. Her words stung the bed-ridden pony.
“We didn’t know Twilight. How could we have known?” The pegasus’ voice was faltering. The unicorn sniffles and walks over to the bed and places her head on the sheets.
“Dash. You don’t know what is going on do you?” Twilight’s breath was heating up the covers.
“No.” The pegasus, the embodiment of loyalty, the pony that has saved the lives of hundreds, the pony who would never leave a friend’s side, the pony that goes by Rainbow Dash, felt her voice crack.
“It’s all over the news, Dash. Ponies are calling it the Unicorn-to-Pegasus-Related Immunodeficiency Disease.” Twilight did her best to hide the tears from her mare-friend. The words stung Rainbow Dash.
“Is that how it’s spread? How were we supposed to know?” Dash suddenly grew more furious. All Twilight did in response was to stroke her mare-friends arm. She was careful to avoid the wires and tubing.
“They don’t know anything much else. The princesses are working on it. But they don’t like interfering with natural diseases. They told me it’s working against nature” Twilight spat the last sentence. Her frustration calmed the pegasus.
“You know what? I think I’m ok with it all.” Rainbow Dash sighs feeling the glare of the unicorn. “The whole dying thing can’t be too bad right?” Rainbow Dash makes eye contact with the unicorn and smiles a bit. “I mean, I’ve faced death more times than I can count. I guess this one I won’t be able to shake off.” She tries to keep a positive attitude but Twilight’s eyes only fill with tears once more.
“Dashie!” Twilight broke down and wept in her lovers embrace. Rainbow Dash just stares into those opaque blank walls and strokes the violet mane.
--
Dear Princess Celestia,
I know you tried all you could to help Rainbow Dash. I understand your reservation on dealing with acts of nature. I write this letter as a thank you for all that you’ve done. I write to inform you that your presence at the funeral was greatly appreciated. I know that the girls would say the same.
I am sorry to report, however they are not grieving well. Applejack has bucked all the trees on her farm twice-fold. Fluttershy has locked herself in her cottage and won’t come out. Rarity refuses to wear or make anything other than black. And Pinkie Pie has stopped throwing parties or playing pranks. Sadly I am not much better.
So it is with a heavy heart that I inform you that the elements of harmony can no longer function properly. I shall be sending the physical elements back to you here shortly. Again I am very sorry to inform you of this but as your student I must take it upon myself to ensure that they are cared for and guarded.
I ask one thing in return Princess. As I have seen in the news the disease Rainbow Dash had was often referred to as “Unicorn-to-Pegasus-Related Immunodeficiency Disease”. If you could be so kind as to change the title to “Pony Immunodeficiency Virus” that would be much appreciated. I have done studies on the virus Rainbow had. It turns out, it is not only spread by the sexual contact between a unicorn and Pegasus of the same sex, but it can also be carried through blood contact and mother to foal. The disease could cause an epidemic if ponies are not informed.
I ask of this because you no more than I want to see Rainbow Dash’s name slandered through the mud anymore. If you could do that for her I will forever be in your debt.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
