1. Cause and effect (Revised; 4/22/2014)
What Makes Us Special
Chapter 1
Cause and Effect
Flying. That’s what Rainbow Dash loved; flying. Not stunt flying, not racing, not weather work, just flying. In whatever form it may be. She would take the speed of a race or the agility of an obstacle course or even the finesse of cloud busting, as long as she could fly. Sure; the admiration of her fan club was always nice, and the cheers from the audience were music to her ears, but nothing beat flying for nothing more than fun. She lived in the sky, she lived to be part of the sky. That didn't mean she couldn't make herself better at what she loved, though.
And that's exactly what today was all about; making herself better. It was a day about flying in the wide open fields outside Ponyville to increase her ability. So she found herself out in the middle of nowhere, above rolling green hills and below bright blue sky, flying through the air and leaving her signature rainbow trail behind her as she looped, rolled, and dived. She let out a cheer of delight as she pulled out of a dive, speeding along mere feet from the ground.
In a moment that she would only ever be able to describe as awesome, she burst through the sound barrier with ease, a Rainboom exploding out behind her. She couldn't hear the explosion, but she knew Ponyville would in a matter of seconds. Resisting the temptation to look back over her shoulder, she narrowed her eyes and flapped her wings harder, attempting to go even faster than she already was. She knew she could go faster. She'd done a Rainboom when she was just a little filly, and she was a much better flier now than she was back then.
She could feel herself speeding up, the ground below her nothing but a green blur. Faster, and faster still she travelled. Suddenly, something appeared in front of her, a very large something that should not have been there.
Thinking quickly, she pulled up, just barely passing over the top of a roof. She shouldn't be this close to Ponyville yet! But she was; houses were whizzing by below her faster than she could fully comprehend. She needed to slow down or she wouldn't be so lucky with the next, taller house she came across. Normally she'd just flare her wing out to catch the wind, but at this speed they'd likely be torn from her body. Instead she simply stopped flapping and held herself as still as possible, pulling up in an effort to bleed off at least some of her speed until she could really stop herself.
Unfortunately, pulling up made her look up, and when she looked up she realized she was nearly in the heart of Ponyville. More specifically, directly in front of the library, which reached much higher in the sky than she did. She was still going too fast to be able to manoeuvre around it, and it was getting closer every moment she wasted thinking about it. The idea of smashing face-first into the wall of the tree wasn't a very appealing one, but she didn't see much other option.
At least, not until she noticed the window just a little bit above her, leading into a bed that she could – hopefully – land on semi-softly. The window was closed, which while it would hurt quite a bit to smash through it, it would hurt less than a face full of bark would, and it would slow her down even more. With a silent prayer that she wouldn’t have to stay in the hospital too long, she aligned herself with the window, folded her wings, and closed her eyes.
She didn't notice the lavender head pop up in the window, nor the glow of magic as the window was opened. She did, however, hear the shriek of surprise and terror as she passed through the window. She felt something hit her left foreleg and her chest, before she impacted something very hard and very unforgiving. In a flash she was unconscious, unable to hear or see the chaos she'd caused until she awoke.
-_-_-_- 10 minutes earlier -_-_-_-
Twilight yawned widely as she rose from her comfortable bed and blankets. She stretched languidly, looking out her window at the rising sun. In the distance she could see the faintest rainbow trail, the cyan head of which was preforming tricks over the grassy fields outside Ponyville. It was looking to be a beautiful day, and she was not going waste any more of it in her bed sleeping, as much as her groggy body wanted her to. With a groan she pulled herself out of her bed, landing on the floor with a quiet thud and making her way over to her bathroom to get ready for the day. Passing her vanity mirror on her way, she cringed at the state of her mane. She'd need to brush that.
First, however, her morning shower was in order. Magically closing the door behind her, she pulled the curtain across the tub and turned the water on, easily finding the optimum temperature. She hummed to herself as she waited for the water to heat up, having been frozen far too many times to make the mistake of jumping in too soon again. Once a decent amount of time had passed, and she could see the beginning trails of steam flowing out from behind the curtain, she lit her horn and teleported herself into her shower with a pop. No need to risk getting water on the floor, after all. Even if she could clean it easily with her magic.
The warm water was soothing, and even though she'd just woken up she could feel herself begin to grow tired just from standing under the relaxing stream. Suddenly, an large explosion sounded through the room. It was muffled by her walls and hidden under the stream of water, but she'd recognized the sound of a Sonic Rainboom anywhere. It brought a smile to her face as she was snapped back to reality and started cleaning herself quickly. She didn't need to be the reason Ponyville ran out of hot water, and knowing that practically everypony in town showered at the same time added an incentive to shower quickly and enjoy the warmth while she could.
A couple minutes later, she shut off the flow of water and, before stepping out of the shower, once again lit her horn. The glow spread out from her horn and surrounded her soaking body, encasing it in a dull purple light. Then, like nothing at all had happened, the glow dimmed, and she stepped out of the shower. The only difference was that her coat was perfectly dry, as was her mane.
Stepping from her bathroom back into her bedroom, walked over to her vanity mirror and raised up her brush, running it through her mane until every strand fell as straight as was possible. Sometimes she wondered how ponies did such things without magic, realizing the difficulty was probably one of the reason Rainbow Dash never bothered with it. She shrugged the thought from her mind as she set the brush back on the table top, giving herself a final once over in the mirror to ensure she was presentable.
With a nod of approval she made her way over to the window, grabbing it in her magic and throwing it open, breathing deeply the sweet smell of early morning air. Then she opened her eyes, and let out a shriek of terror as she saw a cyan bullet flying directly at her. She lit her horn to teleport out of the way, but the speeding object slammed into her before she could get the spell off, sending her flying across the room. She heard a sound like shattering glass, along with an explosive pain in her head. Then, the world around her went dark and her senses dulled. She briefly heard a male voice call out in surprise and panic, but was out cold before she even hit the ground on the other side of the room.
-_-_-_-
Rainbow groaned loudly as her mind drifted back into consciousness. Her head was pounding painfully, but that was to be expected when one woke up from being knocked out. It was a feeling she was used to, though her surprisingly thick skull normally prevented any serious damage. Her chest was aching fiercely, and her left foreleg was throbbing in time with her heartbeat. She'd managed to slow herself down a significant amount before crashing into the library, at least, and crashing through that window must have slowed her down even more.
Suddenly, a memory rushed back into her mind of the window opening before she hit it. Of a purple face appearing in her flight path. Of a shriek of terror before she barrelled into the unicorn who resided in the structure she'd crashed into. A sense of fear suddenly overcame her as she realized she'd probably crashed into Twilight. She opened her eyes blearily, looking up at a bookshelf laying on top of her. Books were laying all around her, and she could feel the weight of the heavy object pressing down on her rather painfully. Luckily it had fallen on top of yet another bookshelf, propping it up so she wasn't entirely crushed.
“Ugh.. stupid books,” she groaned hoarsely, shifting her head around. She regretted speaking as pain flared through her chest. It remain a dull ache even as she stopped talking, the simple act of breathing making her cringe. Her view was completely sealed inside her papery tomb. It was dark; most of the light was being blocked of by piles of books that had been thrown from the shelves in the room. “Twi?” She called weakly, straining her ears to listen for any kind of response. When she didn't get one, she called out again, “Twilight?”
“Rainbow?” Came a panicky response that was not from her lavender friend.
“Spike? You uh... you see Twilight out there somewhere?” Rainbow asked, listening intently for an answer. She didn’t notice it before, but she could hear heavy breathing, almost as if he was hyperventilating.
“I got Pinkie to run and get some ponies from the hospital, they'll be here soon,” he answered shakily. “Where... where are you?”
Rainbow rolled her eyes as she tried to move to make her location known. Unfortunately, the bookcase had pinned her flat on her back, each of her limbs trapped under a shelf. “Uh... under a bookcase?”
“Rainbow, all the bookcases are knocked over, how am I supposed to know which one you're under?” He replied sarcastically, though he couldn't hide the fear in his voice. Something was obviously wrong.
“Look, just... where's Twilight? She'll be able to get this thing off me,” Rainbow sighed irritably, flinching as she felt the pain flare in her chest. She'd probably broken a few ribs.
Spike was silent for a few moments, before he answered, “She's... not going to be able to do that...”
Resiting the urge to roll her eyes again, Rainbow asked, “And why's that?”
“Two reasons,” Spike started shakily. “One, she's sill out cold. Two... her horn's... gone...”
Rainbow was stunned into silence. There was no sound in the room for a few moments as she absorbed the information. Underneath the bookshelf, the sound of her breathing was amplified, and it was getting faster. “Y-you're kidding, right? Is this a prank to get back at me for crashing into the library again?”
“No... Dash, her horn really is gone and... and there's a lot of blood...” Spike whimpered quietly. “I stopped the bleeding but... her breathing's really weak, Dash. I told Pinkie to move as quickly as she could, but the hospital ponies can only get here so fast, and I'm not strong enough to move her on my own.”
A sudden feeling of despair over took Rainbow Dash's mind as she struggled to grasp the severity of her situation. Her struggling increased tenfold as she shoved the pain she felt to the back of her mind. “Follow my voice and get me out of here. I'll get her to the hospital,” she barked, managing to slip a foreleg free. She raised it up and examined a large gash along the length of it. She winced, watching blood seep from the wound, but prioritized it after Twilight's missing horn.
She could hear Spike walking through the room. From the sound of it, it was quite a task. “I'm here, Spike,” she called, pushing up against the bookshelf in an attempt to move it and attract his attention. It worked, as she saw two purple feet appear next to her head. “Yes! This one! Help me lift it!”
“Alright...” Spike trailed off. Rainbow saw his claws reach down and grasp the edge. She heard him huff as he pulled up, and she felt it move just enough to free her other foreleg. Using it she pushed up harder and began shimmying herself out from under it. She pushed herself through a stack of books and finally poked her head out from under the shelf, looking out across the true chaos she'd caused.
Every bookshelf in the room – and there were a lot – was lying on the ground. Some flat, others propped up by books or other pieces of furniture. Books and papers were scattered everywhere, Twilight's bed was smashed to splinters of wood, and her mattress was nothing but stuffing and fabric. Rainbow had probably landed on it like she'd planned. She took a little comfort in the fact that the crash could have been worse. Or she did, until she saw the lavender mare lying in a heap by the door. She couldn't see her face, but she could see the pool of blood that had accumulated under her, and the patches of red that covered her coat. Her mane was a mess, caked with semi-dried blood and tangled beyond recognition.
Without another thought Rainbow forced herself out from under the shelf, crawling on top of it and standing on three of her four legs. The one that had the gash in it was held off the ground. Every move she made caused a sharp pain to lance through her chest, and the pounding in her head only increased. She looked down at the baby dragon, who had dark tracks under his eyes. The poor thing had been so scared for his unofficial mother that he'd been crying.
“Alright... let's get her to the hospital,” Rainbow started, making her way slowly through the messy room towards the unconscious mare. “Help me get her on my back,” she instructed as she leaned down, sliding her neck under Twilight's upper body.
“Are you sure? You look pretty injured yourself,” Spike said worriedly, examining the pegasus before him.
“I can still get her to the hospital,” Rainbow argued. “Now are you going to help or not?”
“A-alright...” Spike trailed off as he grabbed Twilight's lower half and hoisted her gently up onto Rainbow's back. The pegasus grunted at the added weight, having to place her fourth injured hoof on the ground to balance. She let out a cry of pain, but held herself firm as she spread the weight evenly across her back.
“Let's g- AH!” Rainbow bit her lip to muffle her scream as she tried to open her wings. One of them hung limply by her side, while the other simply refused to extend. The feathers were ruffled, and both appendages were littered with small cuts and scrapes.
“Dash!” Spike called worriedly.
“Alright... no flying,” she muttered through gritted teeth, instead she picked her way carefully through the room the rest of the way towards the door. Luckily it was clear of any blockading debris, and she opened and passed through without much problem.
Every step she took made her cringe, and every breath she breathed made her wish she hadn't. But she pushed herself forward, down the stairs and onto the main floor of the library. She could feel her body begging her to stop, but her will pushed her forward out the front door. The sun was bright – obnoxiously so – and she squinted in an attempt to quell her pounding head. It was by some stroke of luck she made it this far, but her body couldn’t take it anymore. She collapsed, landing painfully on her definitely broken ribs.
“Arg!” She screamed in pain as the unicorn’s weight crushed her ribs even more. It was a real possibility she had some internal bleeding. She saw a couple ponies rushing towards her, and recognized the uniforms of hospital workers, and she also noticed two gurneys carried between them. She allowed herself a smile, knowing that Twilight would soon get the medical attention she needed.
She felt her consciousness fading, her vision turning gray and blackness closing in from the edges. She was awake just long enough to see Twilight loaded onto a stretcher, and to notice the bandages covering the flat spot on her forehead where her horn used to be. Convincing herself Twilight would be okay, she closed her eyes and let the pain disappear as she fell unconscious.
-_-_-_-
Rainbow Dash once again awoke to the inky blackness of the inside of her eyelids. This time it was different, though; instead of waking up to pain, she felt nothing but a soothing numbness. It was the feeling of the painkillers she was pumped full of every time she visited the hospital with a severe enough injury. If she remember how her hoof looked, or if she was right about her broken ribs, she was certainly thankful for the drugs. However, at that moment only one thing really worried her.
“Twilight?” She called out frantically, opening her eyes and gazing around the room.
“Hmm, I can see why they call you Loyalty,” came a gruff, but gentle response from somewhere else in the room. Rainbow lifted her neck from the pillow on the semi-soft hospital bed. In the far end of the room stood a doctor she knew well, having seen him many times before after her previous crashes. He was looking over a clipboard held in his magic with a scrupulous eye.
“Dr. Stable,” Rainbow started, “how's Twilight? She was with me when I passed out.”
The brown coated stallion sighed heavily, lowering his clipboard and trotting over to the bed, looking down at the pegasus in it. “We don't know yet. We've got a unicorn specialist coming down from Canterlot to take a look but... I've never even heard of anything like it.”
Rainbow swallowed thickly. She really didn't want to know just how much damage she caused, but she had to find out. “Her horn...?”
“Is... completely gone. Smashed. Shattered. I don't know how it happened, but it's just... vanished,” the doctor answered sadly. “You, on the other hoof, we know about. You've got-”
“Will she be alright?” Rainbow blurted out, cutting off the stallion firmly. She gave him a glance that made it clear she wouldn't accept anything less than the truth.
Doctor Stable sighed. “We don't know yet. Her horn's gone, and her magic was flowing out freely until we got her here. She was almost dead by time we managed to stop the flow. She's alive but... barely.”
Rainbow stared uncomprehendingly for a second before asking, “Her magic... flowed out?”
The doctor rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I suppose you wouldn’t know much about this. Basically, everything living has magic inside their bodies, it's what makes them alive. Magic is their life force. When her horn shattered, her magic had a hole through which it could escape, much like blood from a wound. Normally it would do the magical equivalent of clotting, but in this instance the hole was simply too big, and we had to stitch it closed. She's in a coma right now, since her body doesn't have enough magical energy to sustain itself.”
“Right,” Rainbow nodded slowly. “Will she wake up?” She asked fearfully.
“Again, we don't know. Normally, a pony's magic is restored and regulated by an organ called the magicalious gland. For each race it's located where their magic is needed most. For pegasi it's between the bases of their wings, for earth ponies it's in their chest, next to their heart, and for unicorn's it's in the base of their horn. But-”
“Her horn's gone...” Rainbow finished weakly. “The gland is too, isn't it?” Her worries were confirmed when the doctor nodded.
“She's on life support right now, but if her body doesn't find a way to replenish its own magic... she may never wake up,” he explained sadly. Shaking his head, he brought his clipboard back up to his face in his magical grasp. “You, on the other hoof, we can work with. You have three broken ribs, a large gash on your left foreleg, a broken wing, a dislocated wing, a concussion, and some compound fractures in both your hind legs. You're very lucky your broken ribs didn't puncture any internal organs.”
As the doctor was listing off her injuries, Rainbow's mind was far away from the room. She was focusing on what she'd been told about Twilight. The doctor’s words echoed in her mind over and over; she may never wake up. All because Rainbow Dash wasn't good enough. Because she couldn't stop. Because she couldn't avoid the library. It was all her fault. She may have killed her friend.
“Can I see her?” Rainbow asked suddenly, looking hopefully up at the brown stallion. He sighed.
“Nothing I say is gonna stop you, I presume?” Doctor Stable asked knowingly. When Rainbow nodded he tucked his clipboard away on a desk in the far corner of the room and said, “She's in the room right next to his one. Just go into the hall and turn right, it's the first door.”
“Thanks, Doc,” Rainbow thanked absentmindedly as she pushed herself from the bed, falling out of it onto her hooves. She winced, lifting her foreleg from the ground as she limped across the room. Half way across, she spotted her reflection in a full-length mirror set against the wall. She looked curiously at the pony staring back at her for a moment.
The cyan pegasus she saw was garbed in traditional green hospital gowns, with white bandages covering a large percentage of her body. One wing was encased in a cast, while the other was held to her side in a sling. Her injured foreleg, which had been stitched closed while she was unconscious, was wrapped in thick white bandages, and her barrel was wrapped the same way. Her mane was an absolute mess, but she didn't care much about it.
“Your wing will be fine in about a month and a half. Your ribs will take a little longer,” Dr. Stable informed her as he walked over to the door. “Your foreleg will be okay in a week or two. We want to keep you here overnight because of that concussion, but you should be fine to go in the morning.”
“Right..” Rainbow sighed, tearing her eyes away from the mirror and continuing over the the door. The doctor held it open for her with his magic and she passed through, turning right towards the door he had directed her too. She heard him walk down the hallway in the opposite direction.
Silence reigned in the hallway, minus the clopping of her hooves on the hard floor. They seemed to echoed unnaturally loudly, the sound matching her rapidly beating heart as she approached the door. Her breathing became fast and labored as she struggled to breath through her broken ribs. She was panicking about what she would find on the other side of that door. Behind it was her best friend, lying comatose in a bed because Rainbow Dash had carelessly crashed through her window.
She feared that Twilight would never wake up. But more than that, she feared that Twilight would wake up, and hate her for what she did to the unicorn. She was worried Twilight would never forgive her for nearly killing her. It was an accident, but that didn't make up for it. That was no excuse.
She arrived at the door after an eternity of walking down the endless hall, yet she was still unprepared as she lifted a shaky hoof to the handle. In a moment of hesitation, he closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. She pushed down on the handle and opened the door. It opened with a loud groan, filling the hallway and the room with a painful creaking.
As the door swung open fully, all four of the mares sitting in the room turned to look at the pegasus in the doorway, their faces wet from tears. As she met their gazes one by one, their features switched from that of sadness to rage. She felt herself shrinking under the hateful glares from her friends. Even Twilight, lying unconscious in the bed, seemed to be glaring at her.
“Why’d ya do it, RD?” Applejack asked finally, breaking the awkwardness in the air with harsh words.
“What were you thinking? Poor Twilight did nothing to you!” Rarity added. Her words were barbed with malice.
“I-I didn’t-” Rainbow fumbled for words, her guilt feeding off the angry words.
“How could you…” Fluttershy’s words were the softest, yet somehow managed to be the most hurtful. What was possibly the most forgiving creature in Equestria was… mad at her.
“B-but I…” Her mind was reeling, scrambling around for any way she could defend herself, but it could find nothing to use as a shield. Instead she was forced to take the blows, knowing all too well they were true.
“Don’t expect any more party invites.” Pinkie added, her mane straight, not a single hair out of place.
“I…” Dash couldn’t believe it, her own friends turned against her over one tiny accident. No, this wasn’t tiny; this was huge, arguably the biggest mess up in her life. Because of her it was likely Twilight would never wake up.
Rainbow shook her head firmly, banishing the daydream from her mind. Her friends wold never do that to her... right? She didn't know for sure, but she knew she deserved anything they could throw at her.
With a pounding heart and a shaky breath, she opened the door for real, and sighed in relief when she found an empty room waiting for her. Empty, except the lavender mare lying in the bed. A wave of emotion swept over her as she examined her. Twilight was hooked up to countless machines, keeping her breathing and monitoring her heart. She felt guilt, fear, worry, and relief all at the same time, and they all battled for dominance inside her head.
She walked slowly into the room, shutting the door with a quiet click behind her. Standing right next to the bed, Rainbow looked down at the unicorn, focusing on the bandages wrapped around her head where a horn was supposed to be. Unsure of what she should or even could do, the pegasus fell back onto her haunches and rested her chin on the bed, watching the lavender mare's chest rise and fall slowly with the aid of the machines against the wall. It was both a soothing and unnerving site, and the more she watched it the more she realized that it was her fault.
It was a painful, but ultimately true thought. She couldn't see the rest of Twilight's body, as it was hidden under the blanket, but she knew there were more injuries than just her horn, especially with the force of the impact. The air in the room was dead silent, broken only by the wheezing drone and beeping of the machines keeping her best friend alive. As the guilt came crashing down on her in bigger and bigger waves, another sound joined the dull buzz of the machines.
“I'm sorry,” Rainbow whispered quietly to the unconscious mare, tears rolling slowly down her cheeks as she cried next to her comatose friend. Her mind taunted her with images of the lavender unicorn, awake and happy, with her horn intact. She knew that Twilight would be just fine if it wasn't for her. She knew that Twilight would be out doing whatever it was she had to do that day, probably with her magic, had it not been for her desire to go faster.
“Twilight...” she moaned quiet, bringing her hooves up and burying her muzzle in them as her quiet crying turned to outright sobbing. The wheezing buzz of the machines was nothing but white noise to her now, nothing but a sound adding to the deafening silence in the room, only amplifying the sound of her crying. Through her watery eyes she watched the lifeless mass of purple fur.
“I'm so sorry...”