Obsession and Regression

3

Another couple months went by with Rainbow Dash staying with each of her friends for one week at a time. Her ability to type had changed everything: it proved to them that their friend wasn't just a shell left over from Ironhoof's drug overdose, that she had always been there. They didn't need to watch her as much, just keep danger away from her and keep an ear out for typing, which was much easier. She was still blind and still needed some help eating, as well as most of the other stuff, but with Twilight's help they were able to arrange a schedule which worked everypony, Dash included. The newly established, sentient aspect of the cyan Pegasus had the 5 thinking about their duties to her differently:

"I know it's embarrassin'," Apple Jack said one day while changing Rainbow. "But it just goes to show how much we all care about ya!"

Rainbow Dash, the typewriter beside her and the letters within reach, didn't argue with her friend. Disgusting? Definitely. Necessary? Unfortunately. A wonderful gesture of their boundless friendship? Absolutely.

The 5 were now able to tend to their work almost as well as when Rainbow wasn't there, and they were able to live their lives almost the same as before this fiasco. Rarity was known to take Rainbow to her fashion shows and interviews, though the Pegasus preferred to remain unseen for obvious reasons. Twilight took her shopping, getting her input on what to buy, Pinkie Pie took her on adventures and had her input while setting up pranks, describing the aftermath in fine detail later on. Her time with Apple Jack hadn't changed all that much... save she could now talk to her orange friend. Rainbow expressed her gratitude to her friends one day, via her typing, when they were all together:

"To think, if you girls hadn't taken me in I'd probably be drooling in some padded room with white coated ponies talking to me like I was a baby. Not cool!"

Her typing had been improving and would continue to improve over time.

Ponies still made fun of Rainbow Dash's odd facial expressions, strange smell, and overall appearance, but they were usually ignored. Occasionally a pony on the street would crack a nasty joke, only to have Rainbow type something that made her caretaker laugh.

"What did she just say?" Always asked the rude pony.

"Sorry, it wasn't addressed to you!" Would reply her caretaker, usually Twilight Sparkle, on account of how much time they spent in town shopping.

During these months, Twilight and her friends had been helping Rainbow with Physical therapy. Her limbs, stiff and useless, would be gently stretched and rotated every morning, night, and after her baths. This is something Twilight Sparkle had read might help their wheelchair-bound friend. She asked Dash what she thought of it after the first session:

"Not too painful," the Pegasus replied on her keypad. "It feels like my arms, legs, and wings are all asleep when you do that! It drives me nuts. But I'd do anything to be able to walk again."

Rainbow, like always, was determined.

Apple Bloom and the Cutie Mark Crusaders saw the wheel chair bound Pegasus multiple times since her change. At first they avoided her, even hen she could type... but after a while they came near and talked.

"I- I'm sorry I made fun of you, Rainbow," Apple Bloom said one day. "It was... kinda hard seein' you like that and thinkin' you were still in there."

"It's okay," replied the Dash on her typewriter. "You're still cool in my book!"

"And you're still cool in mine, too!"

Scootaloo agreed wholeheartedly with Sweetie Belle.

* * *

One late night at Sweet Apple Acres, AJ was nestled up in a blanket, half asleep on the guest room floor. It was pitch black in the room and she was just dropping off into the early stages of sleep. She'd been reminiscing with her cyan friend just a few minutes before, even though she knew Dash couldn't reply without the typewriter. Rainbow was snuggled up tight in blankets on the bed wishing she could.

Apple Jack didn't hear it, but her friend's breathing had gradually gotten really heavy. She was upset, fed up with her limitations. It had been so long since she last cried, the closest thing being her reaction to breaking her bones on the stairs at the Sugar Cube Corner (which was the single most painful experience she'd ever had). There was a tiny whisper in the room, just a hair above inaudible:

"App..le..."

Apple Jack twitched her nose as Rainbow continued to breath heavily.

"Apple Ja..."

The pony on the floor winced, reacting to, (but not hearing) the sound.

"Apple Jack... Apple Jack..."

The farm pony gasped, her eyes bolting opened as she sat up.

Must've been dreamin' She thought, yawning and allowing herself to drift away, back to slumber land.

The room was silent. Rainbow's breathing had returned to normal the moment her friend had opened her eyes. This was hard, but Rainbow wasn't about to give up. Before the minute was up, there the sound was again:

"Apple Jack."

It was much clearer this time, and it was coming from the bed. The orange pony wasn't quite asleep, but thought she was hearing things.

"Rainbow?" She called out into the room.

She heard it again:

"Apple Jack."

"Rainbow?" She got up off the floor in an instant, walking towards the bed. "Rainbow! 're you talkin'?"

"Yeah," weakly replied her friend. "Apple Jack. Come here."

"Rainbow..." Apple Jack said, smiling in the darkness. "I'm here, sugar cube. What's on yer mind?"

"Hold me," the Rainbow-maned Pegasus chuckled. "It's been so long since I've been held. Please hold me."

"No problem," the orange pony got into the bed with her paralyzed Pegasus friend. "Happy to oblige."

"Gentle... gentle..." the cyan Pegasus felt minor twinges of discomfort when Apple Jack put too much weight on her. "That feels so nice, Apple Jack."

"I'm so happy you're talkin', Rainbow," the orange pony replied in an excited voice. "Haven't heard your voice in almost 8 months! Not sure I'm gunna sleep now!"

"Just be with me, AJ. I don't wanna sleep either."

Before she realized what she was doing, Apple Jack put her head over and kissed the rainbow-maned Pegasus on the cheek. Her stomach immediately went into knots:

"I'm sorry, RD, that was a little too fast of me..."

Rainbow Dash chuckled.

"I can't see you anymore, but I remember your touch... and I remember your kisses. I love you, AJ."

"I know. I love you too, RD."

The two spent all night talking, falling asleep a mere 30 minutes before Big Mac got up. Though Rainbow could barely talk above a whisper, she didn't let that stop her. She had a lot to say and Apple Jack was more than happy to listen. She'd spent 5 months not talking and 2 just typing. It was nice to just be able to TALK. Apple Jack also had questions of her own to ask:

"What do you see when you look at things, Rainbow? Do you see blurs? Do you see darkness?"

"I don't see a thing," the Rainbow-maned Pegasus replied. "In my sleep I see cool stuff. I fly around Ponyville and Equestria, through clouds, and over open fields. But I'm starting to forget what colors even look like... that's really scary to me."

"Please, RD. I'll help you any way I can."

"I know you will, Apple Jack. You're the loyalist pony I know, next to yours truly..."

"And you're still the Rainbow Dash I know and love," Apple Jack said, smiling and gently nooging her cyan gal pal.

* * *

In the late afternoon. Just after the two ponies got up, they left for town, skipping breakfast entirely. Though Rainbow Dash couldn't see, it was easy to see that she had a different aura about her. One that looked more focused and confident. They plotted along fiercely, fiercer and with more gusto than they had before... the trees whipped by at breakneck speeds. It was the closest feeling to flying Rainbow had felt in practically forever.

It now was the weekend and the Cutie Mark Crusaders were out in the fields trying out different ideas on how to finally discover themselves and earn their Marks. As They happened to cross paths, and the three fillies said:

"Hi Apple Jack! Hey Rainbow Dash!"

"Hey yourselves," replied the Pegasus quietly as the wheelchair came to a halt briefly.

Though it was quiet, they all heard it. Sweetie Belle, who was at the front of the group (sparing the rest her horn), heard it and jammed on the breaks along with the other two.

"Did she just talk?" Asked Applebloom.

"Eey-yup!" Replied Apple Jack, resuming rolling along. "Goin' off to tell the rest of the girls, now."

They continued along until they ran into Big Mac, who was working a plow by the front of the Acres. They stopped by the field he was working on:

"Ya missed all yer chores, AJ," he said, chuckling. "Don't worry, Ah got 'em fer ya... you owe me, though."

"She's sorry." Said Rainbow Dash almost as though she were back to herself again. "Trust me."

"I am and I'll do anything I can to make it up to you!" Apple Jack said, panting loudly as Big Mac's eyebrow raised once he processed that the Pegasus was the first of the mares to speak. "She can talk now. I've gotta show the others. Bye!"

She rushed again, leaving the bemused Big Mac to the fields. They headed straight to Twilight's library, ready to show off her friend's ability to the others. Apple Jack knocked on the door and Twilight opened it:

"Hey, Twilight! You're not gunna believe-" Apple Jack was cut short.

"Twilight, it's been a while since I talked to you," said Dash. "I think we've got some catching up to do."

All of the color left Twilight's face.

"I-I... have to get a drink." She said, faintly.

Apple Jack went to assemble the Mane 6, leaving Rainbow in the library with Twilight and Spike. Twilight had a shaking cup of tea in her hand and was observing her friend from a distance at first. With the purple unicorn in a state of mild shock, both were initially scared to talk to Rainbow, because it had been so long since they heard her speak. Twilight couldn't wrap her head around what was happening, which is what she had to do as a budding scientist to make sense of anything. One second she was experimenting with a grass-growing chemical, the next she was listening to her once catatonic friend Rainbow Dash speak... which she hadn't in such a long time. She dreamed of this moment since the beginning, but in her dreams she was given a sign and it always happened at her home, after giving Dash a potion. Twilight needed a moment... but once Dash said "Hey, come on, guys! I don't bite!" They all laughed and approached her, talking until the rest of the Mane 6 was fully assembled.

Pinkie Pie came in first, then Rarity and Fluttershy together... each pony had the same reaction once the wheelchair bound Pegasus said hi -- their jaw hit the floor. They all talked for a bit, Fluttershy pointed out something after getting over the initial shock:

"I think maybe if you had been Institutionalized, it's possible they would have set you free if you started talking like this."

"I don't know about that," said Twilight.

"Part of what got me to this point," said RD. "Was you girls talking to me so much... I think I'd just kind of be somewhere else if it weren't for you."

"That's very insightful of you to say, Rainbow." Said Rarity. "You've grown-up a lot!"

"When you spend 5 months not talking, or seeing, or feeling all that much, you either go kinda Koo-koo or you think a lot about stuff. Laying in that hospital bad, sometimes I wished when I fell asleep... I wouldn't wake up. I tried to speak back there, but my lips felt like loose rubber and I could hardly tell where my tongue was... it would just come out as babbling. I could hardly scream... even when things hurt my body. I couldn't make a sound! Everypony thought I'd gone nuts. There was one nurse who even called me the R word... and it wasn't Rainbow. Uncool."

"Very much so, RD." Said Apple Jack from behind her chair, rubbing her friend's shoulders.

"When I started typing, it was the coolest experience I could remember having... you all were understanding me, and after all that time, all that investment of loyalty... it totally made it worth it. I can't even cry right now, but I want you each to know that I love you so very much."

They all walked up to the Pegasus and gently gave her a hug.

* * *

The next week, Rainbow was at Rarity's shop. She was, admittedly, bored talking fashion with the ivory Unicorn, but now that they knew she was in her right mind and able to talk... there was less drive to keep her going. It was just the result of having a healthy friend after all that work -- the ponies were all going back to their lives. All but Rainbow.... she was a permanent, yet constantly moving fixture in each of their lives. Rarity was boring Rainbow for another reason... fashion's a visual medium and Rainbow couldn't see! At least she had the dress to be grateful for, but she couldn't even see that.

Dash was deep in thought, mentally back on the farm... or with Pinkie Pie at least. Away from the perfumed air of the shop and somewhere fun. Rarity had her facing the window while she took inventory. The rainbow-maned Pegasus was getting frustrated.

"Gah..." she said, rubbing her face with her most usable hoof. "I'm getting a headache." She rubbed her eyes, pulling her hoof away and seeing purple and blue squiggly lines with her eyes shut. "It's so intense..." She opened her eyes.

The world looked blurry, like she needed glasses.

"Uh, Rarity...?" She said, rubbing her eyes again. The world looked a bit sharper once she pulled her hoof away. "Rarity!"

"What is it, darling?"

"I can see!"

Rainbow Dash looked out at the slightly blurry world. It looked a bit like it might rain later on. She then looked down at her pretty, streamlined dress... feeling its texture with a hoof then seeing it for the first time. A tear welled up in her eye. She could cry, too, and did so... the release feeling divine to the Pegasus as Rarity walked up to her and spun her around, showing her all the beautiful items in her shop. Even though Rainbow wasn't big on fashion, she was throughly engaged by this. Bright colors of nothing interesting beat nothing period.

"This is wonderful, Rainbow!" Said the Unicorn, embracing her friend in a warm hug.

"It is." Replied the Pegasus. "It is."

Another hurdle was jumped and the rest of the Mane 6 were more casually informed of this new ability rediscovered by their friend. Having efficient use of only one arm meant she still had to be wheeled around by her friends, but even that might eventually fade... it was just a matter of time. All ponies were hopeful.