Don't Give Up

Don't Give Up

Chapter 3

Life Goes On

A week. One full week. One week of mind numbing boredom. 7 visits from Twilight, 7 days, 168 hours, 10080 minutes, and Rainbow hated every second of it. It was like nothing the cyan pegasus had ever felt before. She had never been this bored in her life. All she could do was sleep, and even then time passed slowly in her dreams. The only reprieves she got were Twilight's visits, or one of her other friends, but they weren't as frequent. Leave it to Twilight to make a 'visit Rainbow Dash' Calender.

“Go on in” Again she heard the familiar nurse lead somepony into her room, again she heard the clicking of the door opening, and again she heard the soft clopping of hooves on tile floors.

“Hey Dashie, it's me, how ya doin'? Oh, wait, you can't answer, your in a coma. That's alright, I can still talk to you, you must get so bored in here all alone. Oh! Do you want me to bring some music? I'm sure I have a radio or something in here somewhere...no? Darn, maybe next time.” The voice was familiar and foreign at the same time. It was Pinkie's voice, no doubt about it, but there was no energy behind it, it was dull and lifeless.

“I... I baked you some cupcakes... for when you... wake up...” From the sound of her voice she was obviously trying to hold back tears, Rainbow heard a quiet clink as Pinkie put the cupcakes on her bedside table. They were coloured a light, sky blue, with a dollop of rainbow frosting on top. Slowly, Pinkie made her way to the chair where all her friends had sat at some point during the week, Pinkie being the last one to  visit her.

“I hope you don't mind, but I may be a little out of practise... I haven't baked anything since... since you...” Her voice drifted off into silence, but Rainbow could finish the sentence herself. She felt awful for doing this to her friends. If she could somehow reassure them she was okay, find some way to tell them that she was alright. But she couldn't, and that fact bothered her to no end. Everyday she watched Twilight come in to her room, sit on that one chair every time, and cry her eyes out. It was awful to watch, and she could only imagine how Twilight and the rest of her friends felt.

“T-Twilight told me to come and t-talk to you... she said s-something like it would help me... well, at least I-I think that's what she said, you know h-her, always using big words. And you... you never could understand half of them. And... and... oh Dashie, We're all falling apart, I could barely bring myself to bake those this morning, and... we're just falling apart, Twilight tried to keep us together, but... I guess we're just not loyal enough, not like you. Don't you get it Dashie? YOU were the glue. You held us together, you always thought of some way to get us all together and doing something. They even said they couldn't come to my party a couple weeks ago, I haven't tried since then...” Pinkie was balling her eyes out now, not even trying to hold it in.

7 days, 6 friends, more tears then at a onion chopping contest. As if watching her friends like this wasn't enough, every single one of them had found some way to blame her for it. No, they didn't mean to do it, in fact they probably thought they were doing just the opposite, but they did, purposefully or not. They did it.

“You know, I haven't even seen Rarity since our last group visit last week, I think she's taking it worse then Fluttershy, at least she has her animal friends to help her through it. But all Rarity has are her dresses... I hope she hasn't started talking to them, we both know what happens when one of us starts talking to inanimate objects.” Pinkie laughed weekly at her own joke. Though she would rather repress that memory completely, it had made for some rather funny jokes at the odd party.

“Go on in, but I think she already has a visitor.” The nurse once again opening the door to let another pony in. By now Pinkie had managed to calm herself down enough to stop crying, but it was obvious she had been.

“Oh, hey Pinkie... Have you been crying?”

“Oh, hey Twilight, yeah, I was just bringing Dashie some cupcakes, I hope she gets up before they go bad...”

“That's sweet of you pinkie, I know you haven't been feeling yourself lately, glad to see you baking again. Don't worry, I'm sure she'll be back on her hooves in no time at all” Twilight sounded a little too enthusiastic, as if she was convincing herself more then Pinkie.

“I hope so... I'm not sure how much longer we can go on like this...”

“Like what?”

“Like this! When was the last time you saw Rarity? Of Fluttershy? Or even Applejack?”

“Well I... haven't... you're right Pinkie, we'll falling apart. I saw it, but I didn't want to admit it, I've tried, but I can't do it alone...”

“I know Twi, I have to go, have fun.” With that the pink earth pony walked out of the room.

“Wow, I think that's the first time I saw Pinkie walk... anywhere.” Rainbow thought, once again plagued by guilt at the most recent visit. 8 visits from Twilight, 8 days of being comatose.

“Hey Dash... How's it going in here? I would imagine somepony like you would be bored out of your skull... if you were even in your skull at all.” Again Twilight made her way to the chair and sat. Tears already welling up in her eyes.

“Pinkie's right, we are falling apart. I'm not sure how much longer till one of us snaps.” Twilight sighed, reaching forward and grabbing Rainbow's hoof in her own. “We need you back with us, we can't last much longer.”

“Oh, Twilight Sparkle, right?” Asked a pony currently unknown to Dash.

“Yes, and you must be the doctor, how's she doing?”

“Pretty good, considering what she's been through, her wounds have healed almost completely, the only thing now is her coma, but it's all up to her now. If she dies it's because her mind finally gave up the fight. If that happens, we need to be ready, does she have any family? And have they been notified?” The pony who was apparently the doctor went over to Rainbow and started poking and prodding around her ribs and chest.

“Her mother has been notified, but she's up in Cloudsdale. Me and her other friends are the closest thing she has to family around here.”

“Good, any funeral arrangements?” The doctor was now pocking at Dash's wings.

“No, because she's not going to die.” Twilight's voice was low and laced with venom.

“Ms. Sparkle, I understand how you must feel, but facts are facts, only 20% of ponies who go into comas come back out. Life goes on, Ms. Sparkle, we just have to let go sometimes.”

“Before her 0% of the population could do a sonic rainboom. She's going to survive. You're right, life does go on, but she'll be going on with the rest of us.” Twilight was now glaring daggers at the apparently oblivious doctor.

“If you say so. If she wakes up she'll be fine, though she'll have to take it easy on the flying for a bit. May I ask what happened? She came here with some pretty bad internal bleeding and a broken bones.”

“No, you may not.” Twilight stated flatly, before picking him up in a light purple glow and tossing him out into the hall. Closing and locking the door behind him. “The nerve of some ponies, sticking their nose into everything that doesn't involve them.” Twilight huffed and sat back down in her chair, having stood up when the doctor entered the room.

“Wow, that's a touchy subject, gonna have to remember to stay away from that later” Dash thought to herself, thinking what it would be like to be thrown out a door by magic. Sure, she could easily fly and stop before she hit the ground, but then again, it was magic.

“Now then, where were we? Oh yes-” Twilight was silenced by an alarm from somewhere in her saddle bags.

“Oh great, I have to go, but I'll be back tomorrow, sorry for the short visit, but I promised Spike I would help clean for once, bye Dash.” Twilight quickly stood up and went over to the door, it's handle covered in a magenta glow, but hesitated. Slowly, she let go of the doorknob, and walked back over to the bed. Her head above Dash's, their muzzles inches apart.

“He said that the only way you could die now was to give up.” Twilight was choking back her tears, but after 8 days Dash knew all to well it was a battle she was meant to loose, “So do me a favour,” Twilight said, leaning down even closer, her muzzle right in Rainbow's ear, “don't give up.” she then kissed Rainbow on the cheek, before blushing furiously and teleporting out of the room.

“Wait... did Twi just... no, never. But... she did... but I... she would never... WHAT!?” Rainbow Dash was beyond confused. Sure, it may have been just a kiss on the cheek, but her face after? She could have sworn she was looking at a red unicorn instead of a purple one.

“Okay,” Dash thought, “time to go over the facts. One, Twilight kissed me, on the cheek, but a kiss none-the-less. Two, she obviously enjoyed it, or her face wouldn't have been so red. Five, no, wait... three, while I have never been exactly quiet about being gay, I never though Twi would be into mares. Four, I enjoyed it. Five, why in Equestria did I enjoy it?” Rainbow could have kept going, but the only thing she could think of was “she enjoyed it” and “why did she enjoy it?”. Occasionally accompanied by her remembering every single detail about it, Twilight's soft voice in her ear, the feel of her breath on her fur, the feeling of those soft, almost fluffy lips on her cheek, and her smell. What she wouldn't do to smell that again. A mixture of lavender (oddly appropriate, all things considered) and a hint of something that she couldn't quite place, chocolate maybe?

She needed to think about this, and obsessing about what had happened wouldn't help her think at all. Instead she decided to just try and relax and clear her head. Though unfortunately that didn't help, as she slipped accidentally into a dream filled sleep. Filled with images of a certain purple unicorn, and a large amount of them about some form of kissing. Some more... intimate, then others. But no matter what the dream was, there was a common theme; Dash didn't give up.

Life does go on, and Rainbow Dash fully intended to go on living with it.