Bilateral
By SandvichParty
“Yeah, but... what if your bestest friend ever got hurt, really bad, and you thought it was all your fault? Then what?”
One of the most memorable days of Rainbow Dash’s life began with a nightmare.
The cerulean mare was cruising through the air, taking in the lush green hills, and the beautiful lighting that accompanied Ponyville at sunset. Glancing around with a smile on her face, she saw a spot of yellow in her perception up ahead. She squinted, which revealed the figure as Fluttershy.
She yelled rather loudly - “Hey Fluttershy! Wait for me, will ya’?” There was no response from the yellow pegasus. Oh, well, Dash thought. I’ll catch up to her, like it or not! She slowed to a stop, hovering in mid-air with her wings, and quickly threw her weight forward. She straightened her back legs, going into a sort of a dive, when something happened. She was falling! She flapped her wings frantically, but they were getting about as much lift as wet spaghetti. Despite her mid-air struggling, the terrified mare fell. She was quickly doubling her speed in her downwards descent. She was only mere feet from slamming into the ground full force, when -
She did indeed hit the ground, but not quite as hard as she had anticipated. Looking up and holding her head, she saw she had been asleep in a large branch of an apple tree on Sweet Apple Acres. Presumably she had lost her balance while slumbering and had fallen off. Despite her nightmare taking place in evening, it was barely morning. She groaned, wiping the dirt and dust off the bottom of her hooves. I’m so tired lately... need to stop having naps turn into all night snoozes, she thought. I guess even sleeping on an uncomfortable place like that won’t help. She shook it off as Applejack walked towards her, hauling a large pile of apples.
“Mornin’, Dash. Saw ya’ take a mighty bad tumble outta’ one of the trees. You alright?”
“I’m fine, Applejack. Just feeling a little weird lately, nothing special.” she mumbled, slightly groggily.
shot her a glance. “Weird? What do ya’ mean by that?”
“You know... general under the weather feeling?”
“I’d hate to see ya’ not feelin’ good, Dash.” A look spread across her face, as if remembering something. “Ah, wait. Before I forget, lemme tell ya’ that Pinkie’s having a party this afternoon. Twelve o’ clock exactly. That might do a good job of cheerin’ you up.”
Rainbow was quickly interested. Another one of Pinkie’s zany parties could likely cheer her up. She chuckled. “Pinkie... always giving short notice, huh?”
“You’re tellin’ me. I got the invitation just a half an hour ago... I reckon it’s somewhere around four hours ‘til it begins. She’d be mighty disappointed if ya didn’t turn up...”
Dash winced. Disappointed wasn’t the word for when you didn’t show up to Pinkie’s parties... mentally unstable was more fitting, having experienced her distress personally. Just as Applejack was about to speak, she interrupted. She spoke loudly this time, having fully awakened. “I wouldn’t miss a party for anything, especially Pinkie’s! See you in four hours, AJ!” With this, she zoomed off without warning. The earth pony frowned, and continued pulling the cart.
The mare zipped through the skies, rebounding off of clouds whenever she needed to pull off a quick turn or loop. If there was any time for good weather, it was now.. After about an hour and a half of zooming around the skies of Ponyville, she came across a large collection of gray rain clouds. Well, that just won’t do, she thought to herself in a mock voice. I suppose I’ll have to get rid of you as well.
Gracefully, she moved backwards and elevated herself above the group of storm clouds. She smiled to herself. This was one of the best parts of her job, and why she loved it. After getting a significant distance from them, she threw herself directly to the heart of the clustered clouds. After a second of acceleration, she twisted so that her back was facing the ground, and lashed out with her back legs, slamming into the clouds. The force caused them to disperse, leaving nothing but a few gray particles floating in the air. She bounced off them, losing her massive amount of speed and regaining her balance mid-air. It had taken little more than a minute to do this, but it was immensely satisfying, and gave her a victorious feeling.
Finally, she looked around, admiring her work. The skies were completely blue with only a hoof full of clouds remaining to add flavor to the scenery. Looking towards the ground, she saw she had attracted a small crowd of fillies and other ponies, all staring as if they were watching a movie. Scootaloo was in the middle of the congregation, jumping frantically and trying to catch her attention. Don’t take too much pride in yourself... she thought. She still couldn’t help herself from a bit of glory, however, and grinned, waving at the group. Most of them broke out into smiles, especially Scootaloo, who was positively beaming.
She yelled down to the crowd. “You liked that, huh? How about this?”
She kicked a cloud with a bit of force, which proceeded to shift its color to a light gray and rumbled. She kicked the cloud again, and rain began to fall upon the crowd... but before the droplets even had a chance to get everypony wet, she had rushed another cloud directly below the rainfall, collecting the rain and keeping them dry! They stared in silence, amazed, but she wasn’t done yet. In one move, she moved the bloated cloud near the newly created storm cloud and flew into them both at the same time, causing them to poof into nothingness. The crowd below roared with delight. Dash, whilst basking in her moment of fame, realized something - Just how long is it until Pinkie’s party? Shocked, she zipped off yet again, confusing the crowd. They dispersed rather quickly after she left.
Mrs. Cake’s bakery was only about ten minutes away by flying, but Rainbow rushed there anyways. She had no idea of the time, and didn’t want to keep Pinkie waiting. Moving through the air haphazardly, she flew through the air in the direction of the bakery. In a few minutes time, she had landed in front of the main entrance, and walked inside without delay.
Catching her breath, Dash spoke to Mrs. Cake, whom was looking at her from behind the counter. “Hey... sorry if I’m... late...” she said between breaths.
“Dear, don’t worry, you’re not late! In fact, I’ll say you’re quite early! Pinkie Pie’s right upst...” Dash was already halfway up the steps. Mrs. Cake frowned. “Well, alright then... have fun!”
She pushed open the door and saw the sight of Pinkie Pie happily waiting on her slightly messy bed, laying with her stomach up and hanging her head down the side of the bed. Upon seeing Dash, she quickly righted herself and hastily moved in front of her, hopping as she usually did whenever she was excited.
“Ooh! Ooh! Rainbow Dash, you’re here! And you’re early too! That means all the more time to party!”
Dash grinned. There was something about Pinkie that always lifted her spirits, whether it was her crazy hairdo, or her bouncy demeanor. “Yeah, just had to make sure the skies were looking okay for the party.”
Pinkie Pie stopped bouncing, but was still obviously excited. “Perfect! No rainy days for our crazy ways!”
“Yep, that’s what I was aiming for.” Just being there, her under the weather feeling had gone away. She felt welcomed and comfortable, though there was a certain quality to it that made her feel uneasy for some reason or another...
Shaking it out of her head, she spoke to her friend again. “So, heh, whatcha’ got planned?”
“Oh, dancing, games, all the good stuff for a party! I even got the biggest, bestest cake made for the party...” Pinkie pointed towards a bulky object covered with a white sheet, looking somewhat like a multi layered cake. “...but I’m saving that for the grand finale!” she boasted.
“Well, when’s everypony gonna get here?”
Pinkie spoke in a slightly calmer voice. “Well, like I said, you are kinda early, but they’ll be here soon I think!” She glanced at the clock on her wall. “Just around ten itty bitty minutes before the fun really starts!” The minute hand moved slightly. “Nine minutes!” she giggled.
A noise came from beside the two conversing ponies, and the door was swung open, revealing Twilight, Applejack, and Fluttershy.
Twilight spoke, glancing at Rainbow Dash. “Oh, hi Pinkie! I see someone was earlier than us.”
Applejack chuckled, moving into the room and glancing at the decorations. “Yup, we’re not the ‘fashionably late’ fancy type y’hear about. Although, I wouldn’t assume the same of Rarity...” Everypony else chuckled at her remark.
An obviously annoyed voice came from behind the congregation of ponies at the door - “Very funny.” Rarity emerged from the back of the group, much to Applejack’s surprise.
Pinkie spoke, counting all the ponies in the room. “...Rarity, Rainbow, Applejack, Twilight, Fluttershy, and me!” She beamed. “Everypony’s here! Early, too!” she shouted, beginning her ecstatic hopping about again.
The ponies at the door casually walked into the room, Rarity taking sight of the decorations.
“My, Pinkie, this really is quite a party, even for you! Though I must ask, what’s the occasion?”
Pinkie beamed. “The occasion is that it’s a perfect time to have a party!”
Forcing a smile, Rarity laughed, and then asked,“...but what’s the real reason?” Pinkie’s logic wasn’t too clear... Then again, when is it clear? Rarity thought to herself.
“Rarity, y’don’t need a reason to have a party! Any time can be party time!”
“Fine by me. So, is there anything in particular to do first?”
“Well, not yet, but, feel free to hang out!”
The group of friends scattered across the room, taking part in various activities - Dash was getting herself some punch, Fluttershy was playing with Pinkie’s pet, Gummy, and Applejack and Twilight were off to the side of the room, carrying on a conversation.
“...An’ Big Mac ended up covered in hay!”
Twilight chuckled. “That’s quite a story.”
“Yep, he didn’t have apple pie for ‘bout two weeks!” Applejack laughed - and then her face turned serious. “Oh, Twi’... Did I tell ya ‘bout what Rainbow said to me?”
The purple unicorn’s face was quizzical now. “Oh? What’s that?”
“Well, earlier this mornin’, she said she wasn’t quite feelin’ herself. Not sick or nothing, just... off.”
“Doesn’t seem that odd to me. Didn’t you say she was sleeping in one of your apple trees?”
The orange earth pony thought this over for a second. “...Yeah, I reckon that might have somethin’ to do with it.”
Twilight chuckled. "If I had a bit for every time she did that, I'd-"
She stopped as Dash herself called out excitedly, asking for everypony's attention, or, to quote verbatim, "Check out these awesome moves!" Twilight groaned. Rainbow’s being the complacent mare she always is...
Once all her friends were focused solely on her, Rainbow began triumphantly flipping through the air, pulling off quite a few acrobatic tricks. Some tricks included were double back-flips, casual side spins in midair, and even once break-dancing. Now for the grand finale, she thought to herself. It’s gonna be so awesome! Spinning nearly as fast as a wheel on a downhill chariot, she finished her midair descent and turned around -
Pinkie jumped right into her face, surprising her possibly more than a giant parasprite could have. “Oooooooohhh!”
Dash, startled, was thrown backwards by her surprise, which was almost a tangible force. As she tumbled through the air, a thought came to mind-this is probably gonna’ hurt...
Then she crashed violently into the refreshments table. Splinters and dust went flying everywhere as the sound of breaking glass sounded throughout the entire bakery, followed by the noise of friends yelling.
“What in tarnation‘s going on?”
“Uh, Rainbow, where did you...”
“Oh... wh-what was that?!”
Nothing came from Rarity’s end, other than an immense shriek. Most likely from all the dust in the air, though it was also comprised of pure shock.
After the dust had cleared, Dash saw her friends rushing towards her worriedly, all frantically issuing words of concern.
“Are you okay?”
“What happened?”
“However did...”
Everypony’s speech became slurred to her, as her mind tried to decide whether or not it was a good idea to stay conscious. Finally, she gave up her bout of resistance to stay awake and laid her head to the side, before gradually drifting into the murky depths of unconsciousness...
“Pinkie, how many times do I have to tell you? It wasn’t your fault!”
Pinkie looked back at Twilight, an expression of mixed confusion and concern on her face. “Really? It sure looks like it... When you jump in somepony’s face, is it their fault if they go flying around more than a buncha’ scared pigeons?”
After a moment of consideration, the unicorn replied. “...Well, that depends on how you look at -”
The pink pony crossed her arms with a determined look on her face. “Exactly. And the way I ‘look at it’, it’s my fault, so I’m staying here.”
Twilight sighed, a cloud of visible breath forming in the chilly night air. Though the two conversing ponies were indoors - inside a hospital’s waiting room, namely - the building was not particularly well ventilated and much of the cold from outside was now inside. Despite this, Pinkie had been swearing up and down all night that she would wait for the hospital personnel to give her the message that Rainbow Dash was alright. Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy had been there earlier, but had left due to how late it was becoming with no word about the pegasus.
“Pinkie, this really isn’t necessary... I mean, of course I’m worried too, but isn’t staying up an entire night in freezing weather a bit...drastic?”
“Yeah, but... what if your bestest friend ever got hurt, really bad, and you thought it was all your fault? Then what?”
The lavender mare opened her mouth as if to speak, but said nothing. Rather, a thought had interrupted her - She has a point.
Of course, a persistent mare as always, she spoke anyways. “Well, you’re right about that... still, you don’t know just how long it might be! You could be waiting here all night!”
As though she had been listening in on the talkative duo, a nurse unicorn trotted through the door, levitating a clipboard with her horn’s magic. Pinkie’s expression quickly shifted to a look of nervous anticipation.
“Well, allow me to start by saying Rainbow Dash is going to be fine,” the nurse began, much to Pinkie’s joy - she immediately broke into a huge grin. “At least...” she continued, “...physically speaking.”
Pinkie’s grin quickly shrunk to a small frown. “Huh?”
The nurse sighed. “Yes, we’ve managed to at least begin healing some of her wounds, but there’s something else to it, you see... nothing that we can fix, at least. What, exactly, did you say caused the injury?”
“She crashed into a table,” Twilight answered bluntly.
“That would definitely explain it. Moving on, it seems that there’s been some damage to her spinal nerve... since that area has some major connections to the brain, an injury may temporarily affect many factors, like physical skills, emotional state and memory. We really can’t do much if that occurs other than suggest a lot of rest and therapy.”
The party pony’s frown already had become a look of pure worry and concern. “Uh... so what’s that mean?”
“For lack of a better term, your friend might be a little different for a while - how long a while is, we don’t know.”
Pinkie was silent, thoughts running through her head. Different? How different? Are we still gonna be friends? Is she... She shook her head frantically as if to scare away the painful questions that still needed answering.
The nurse attempted to calm her - “Pinkie! She’s fine, don’t worry! There’s nothing seriously wrong with her, as far as we can tell!” The pink mare only sat down and buried her head in her hooves, hastily saying something incomprehensible. “I shouldn’t have said anything at all...” the nurse muttered under her breath.
Twilight tried to calm her as well. “Pinkie, in the long run, she’s going to be fine... it’s just, things might be a little different from usual for a little bit.” Desperately looking for a way to cheer her up, an idea struck her - “But... that’s how life should be, right? Crazy and unpredictable, like your parties?”
Pinkie raised her head at the mention of a party, signaling to Twilight that she was heading in the right direction.
“...And, maybe, when she’s fully recovered, you could hold a huge party for her?”
The usually cheerful pony perked up, imagining the possibilities of a massive party like that. Ooh, it could be like the one we were holding when Dash got hurt except waaaaay better and way more happy because she’s all better, or maybe even... Just thinking about Rainbow getting better had made her nearly forget that things ‘might be different’.
“So, would you like to see her?”
“Huh?” The party pony’s train of thought was abruptly stopped by the nurse’s question. “Well, of course! I wanna say hi, and say sorry, and...”
The nurse groaned, again interrupting her. “It’s getting late, let’s just go.” Pinkie silently nodded and trotted through the doors, following the rest of the ponies in the room.
Three of the hospital beds in the following room were empty, but in the leftmost one laid Rainbow Dash, head propped up and looking at the door.
“Pinkie? Twilight?”
Pinkie jumped over to the bedside, nearly bursting with joy. She couldn’t decide what do say first, so she said it almost all at once - “OhmygoshRainbowyou’reokI’msohappyyesyou’regonnagetallbetterandwe’regonnahaveapartyandI’msorryabouttheaccidentand-”
“...Would you slow down?” the pegasus grumbled in a short-tempered manner.
“Oh, okay... and I’ve been waiting all night just for you to get better.”
“Well, alright, but...” Her face turned thoughtful for a moment - and then furious. “...but if you hadn’t interrupted my trick in the first place, I wouldn’t be in this mess, you know.” she chided through gritted teeth.
“Yeah, and I am so sorry for that, but you’re going to get all better, right?”
“Does it seem like sorry is going to get me out of this place anytime soon?”
Pinkie was taken aback - this wasn’t like her at all. Then again, the nurse did say...
Her thoughts were interrupted for the second time that night, this time by Dash. “Just... I’m tired. Go away.” Without a second thought, she turned in the bed, visibly wincing, and faced her back to the three ponies standing at the bedside.
The previously ecstatic earth pony frowned. “...But...”
Twilight groaned. “Remember? She’s going to be different? Just leave her alone, like she asked. Come on. I need to go organize my new books...”
Without a word, Pinkie followed Twilight out of the door. As the last one in the line of exiting ponies, she pulled the door shut behind her, saying one word in a wavering voice before it closed all the way -
“...Dashie?”
