Chapter Eleven

The Mending

Rainbow Dash always hated the lemony scent that accompanied hospitals. Especially now since the smoke and ash from the fire had burnt her nostrils. Wheeling down the hallway on the gurney she and her sister arrived there in, and ignoring the pain in her nose, Rainbow Dash took in what she saw.

Florescent lights passed by overhead and shined in Dash's eyes periodically. A light brown stallion had his front hooves on the gurney, and was pushing it along at a brisk pace. Next to him trotted the dark gray unicorn nurse, who had a pen and clipboard held in her magic, jotting down notes.

Throughout nearly the entire journey to a destination unbeknownst to Dash, the unicorn asked questions about her.

"May I please have your name?" asked the unicorn.

"Rainb-" Dash was suddenly interrupted by a massive upheave in her chest. She coughed for a while, nearly hacking her lungs out. Finally she regained control of her breathing, and spat out something awful tasting in her mouth. She looked down and found her spittle to be a grayish black. Turning back to the nurse, she answered the question.

"Rainbow Dash"

"Thank you. Age?"

"Seventeen"

"Thank you. And your friend back there, what is your relation?"

"Adoptive sister."

The nurse looked up from her clipboard and cocked an eyebrow. "Thank you, I'll take note of that. Now, what is her information?"

"Her name is Scootaloo, and she's ten."

The nurse then went on to ask questions about things like allergies that afflicted the two ponies, to which Dash replied they had none that they knew of. The cyan mare didn't pay full attention to rest of the questions; she just answered without thinking.

After a ride that seemed to be going on forever, the pony pushing the gurney along slowed to a stop in front of a door, and allowed the gray nurse to use her magic to open it. Dash was wheeled inside the room, and the stallion left without a word.

The gray nurse then busied herself with tending to Dash's wounds. Using her magic to levitate a flurry of bandages, some spools of string, needles, and a few tubes of ointment towards her, the nurse began to mend the cuts that still glistened with fresh blood.

Dash just watched the nurse work silently. Wincing slightly as ointment was pressed against open wounds, and needles slid through damaged skin, Dash observed the pony gracefully stitch the pegasus up.

A mirror was hung the wall, and through it Dash could see just how shredded her body was. Long gashes ran the lengths of her barrel and flanks, her feathers were ruffled, burnt, and unkempt, and shed blood was drying on all parts of her body.

Her front legs, however, were the worst. It appeared as though she had lowered both of them into a wood chipper; cuts, gashes, and scratches adorned the two legs. Dash hadn't even noticed them before. But when she did, waves of itching pain reached her brain, causing her to hiss sharply.

These cuts on her legs were probably a result of her using them to shield her head when she crashed through that last window. Dash didn't care though, as long as she and her sister were safe, she was okay with whatever harm came to her body.

The nurse worked tirelessly, and before Dash had realized she had even started, the unicorn was nearly finished. "I should get her onto that quilt Granny Smith and her cousins have been working on that AJ told me about." Joked Dash to herself in her exhausted mind.

Tying up the last of the stitches, the nurse then motioned for Dash to step into a shower. The cyan pegasus attempted to get up, but her muscles screamed in protest. Dash grunted from the pain, to which the nurse responded by pressing a button on the wall.

The door to the room opened a brief while later, and two female medical ponies walked through the door and into the room. The two mares helped Dash up, and walked her across the room, behind a curtain, and into a shower.

One turned the faucet, and warm water flowed out of the shower head, giving a refreshing feeling to the pony that sat underneath it. With sponge in hoof, the two mares, along with the gray nurse, set about cleaning the soot and blood covered pegasus.

The floor of the shower turned black and red as the mares scrubbed while fresh water cascaded down the cyan body. Dash's bliss from the rhythmic rubbing and the water of a perfect temperature was interrupted as she saw soap being dribbled onto the wet sponges.

The instant the first sponge made contact, Dash could feel the soap burning her wounds. Wincing and hissing from the pain, Dash grit her teeth and stuck through it.

After ages of sponges scrubbing, soap cleaning, and water running, Dash had been washed clean of all of the soot and blood on her body. The nurse turned off the faucet and the three mares set about drying Dash's body with clean, soft towels.

Dash was then helped to the bed on the opposite wall, where she sat down and watched the two mares leave. The nurse then set about applying bandaging to the stiches. After covering them all, she took out a tongue depressor and looked at Dash.

"Alright, Miss Dash, open your mouth and say 'ah'."

Dash did as she was told.

"Aaaaaaaaaahhhh."

The nurse used the tongue depressor to look deeper into Dash's throat. The nurse studied the blackened esophagus, let out a "humph", and removed the depressor. Dash then coughed dryly, hacking up what little moisture there was in her throat.

"I'll be right back, Miss Dash," said the nurse as she exited the room. The cyan mare watched her go, and then sighed deeply as she inspected her body.

"They didn't do a very good job of cleaning my wings," thought Dash as she painfully lifted her right wing to inspect it. There wasn't a feather in place. The cyan pegasus surveyed the unkempt wing, and decided that it would be too much work to preen right now, as she was too tired to do anything.

After waiting for what seemed like hours, Dash began to fall asleep. As she was slipping away, she heard the door begin to open. The dark gray nurse walked in with a small white spritzer bottle and two cups, one large and one small. The three objects were being held by the dark blue magic.

The nurse went to the sink and poured water into the large cup until it was full. Extending it to Dash, she took it, and before lifting it to her mouth, she was interrupted by a hoof on the glass.

"Don't drink yet, simply take a mouthful and gargle it around to get the soot out."

Once again, Dash did as she was told. Taking a large swig in her mouth, she sucked in nearly half of the water. She swished it around and gargled for a bit, and after she deemed it ready to spit out, she leaned over to the small cup to vacate the contents of her mouth.

Black flakes floated around in the grayish water, to Dash's disgust. She wiped her muzzle with a hoof, and looked at the glass thirstily.

"Go ahead," said the nurse.

Dash placed both hooves on the glass, lifted it to her mouth, and took a few large gulps. Finishing off the water, Dash handed it back to the nurse who refilled it. Again downing the entire drink, the pony sated her thirst. She set it down on the nightstand, and looked at the spritzer bottle being held in the unicorn's magic.

"Open wide, like before," said the nurse.

Dash closed her eyes, opened her mouth, and said "ah". She heard a spritzing noise followed by moisture and a foul cherry-like taste grace her throat. The spray had caught her by surprise more than it should have, which caused her to wheeze and choke uncontrollably.

Dash opened her eyes after a few seconds of wheezing to find the nurse had refilled the glass, placed a cap on the bottle, and was walking to the door.

"Get some rest, Miss Dash; you need it after what you've been through," said the nurse as she reached for the lights.

"Wait, nurse, tell me something," called Dash after her. The nurse turned to find that Dash had already settled underneath the covers.

"Yes?" she responded.

"Is my sister going to be okay?"

The nurse smiled again. "Yes, Miss Dash, everything will be alright. You'll see tomorrow when hopefully she'll be awake." The nurse then flipped out the lights, closed the door behind her, and left Dash to the dark.

The battered, bruised, and overwhelmed pony dug herself further into the soft, white, lavender scented blankets. Before she drifted off to sleep, something dawned on her.

This was all her fault.

If she hadn't told the matrons at the orphanage to keep her sister there, then Scootaloo wouldn't have been in the fire, and she wouldn't be hurt. If Dash would have just adopted the filly right when she found out she could, Scootaloo would have been much happier much sooner.

This realization made Dash want to scream. She loathed herself now more than she ever had in her entire life. Another thing Dash remembered: What was that weird feeling part on Scootaloo's side about? And her wing was bent awkwardly…

Dash couldn't bring herself to say it. After beating her denial down some more, she came to the conclusion that there must have been something wrong with the wing. Searching for a logical reason, she found it.

Scootaloo's left wing had been broken.

Dash sobbed as she bit her hoof. She hoped and plead and prayed to whoever was listening that nothing long lasting had happened to Scootaloo's body.

After wallowing in self-hatred, Dash finally managed to pass out from exhaustion. Tears still drying, the rainbow-maned pegasus fell into a shakier sleep than the one she had fallen into during her sister's sleep-over.

Dash had horrendous nightmares about her sister being without flight throughout the entire night.

"Scootaloo, I'm so, so sorry that you can't fly anymore…"

"It's not your fault Rainbow Dash."

Dash scrunched her face upwards she heard her sister's voice again. The dream continued.

"But…yes it is though. See, I was going to adopt you, so I told the matrons at the orphanage to keep you there that one last night. I wanted to surprise you when you woke up the next morning in your new cloud bed."

"WHAT?!"

"I'm sorry!"

"MY WING IS BUSTED AND I CAN'T FLY BECAUSE OF YOU?!"

A tear streaked down Dash's sleeping face.

"Please…"

"I HATE YOU RAINBOW DASH! I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!"

Rainbow Dash violently jerked upright in bed covered in a thin film of sweat. Panting and shaking uncontrollably, Dash began to rock herself back and forth.

She spotted the clock and saw that it was currently 4 o'clock in the morning. Closing her tear filled eyes; Dash lied back down and pulled the covers up again.

Sleepless agony consumed Dash for the next four hours straight. Staring blankly at the moon-lit curtains on the window, she heard the door open. She turned and watched as the grey nurse walked in.

"Good morning, Miss Dash," she said in her elegant voice.

"H-hi" responded the exhausted pegasus as she buried her face into the pillow.

"Did you sleep well?" she asked.

"Uh…yeah," Dash lied through the linens.

The nurse trotted over to the nightstand and lifted the spritzer bottle again.

"Time for another, Miss Dash."

The cyan mare rose shakily from the bed and opened her mouth. The foul cherry-like taste coated the back of her throat, and again she wheezed like before.

"Eugh, what is that stuff?" Dash asked after clearing her throat.

"Medicine, of course. This helps your throat to heal after it was subjected to heat and smoke like it was."

Dash grumbled. "Then why does it have to taste so terrible?"

"I'm sorry, we do not have any other flavors," said the nurse with a compassionate smile.

Dash rolled over in bed and screwed her eyes shut.

"Is the only reason you woke me up was to spray that crud in my mouth?"

"Well that and I have some good news for you!"

Dash turned back around to find her five friends and the other two Cutie mark Crusaders entering the room. Her mouth twisted upwards into a huge smile.

"Hey guys, were you worried 'bout me?"

"Goodness Darling," responded a powder white unicorn. "Your voice is dreadful!"

Dash grimaced. "Thanks, Rarity."

"What she means is 'yes, Rainbow Dash, we were worried 'boutcha'" Said Applejack to the unicorn.

"Oh, uhm, yes of course, that is what I meant…heh heh…" said Rarity with an apologetic smirk.

"Oh Rainbow Dash," said Twilight, "we're so proud of you!"

Rainbow Dash cocked an eyebrow. "For what?"

"You were willing to sacrifice life and limb to save your sister. That shows that you truly are right to raise her."

Dash smiled. "Thanks, Twi."

"And I'm sorry Fluttershy and I couldn't make it there in time to help you, you're just too fast of a flier. By the time we got to the ground you were crashing through the window with Scootaloo."

Rainbow Dash blushed.

"So how are you feeling?" asked Fluttershy.

"Well," Dash began. She hardly had any idea where to start. After picking a spot, she continued. "My throat feels like I've been gargling nails, my wings feel like they're being plucked clean, my head feels like it's being pounded like a drum, and my whole body feels like somepony is hitting it with mallets. That answer your question?" Dash didn't mean to come off so short.

"Oh my goodness, are you alright?" the yellow pony asked, ignoring the accidental hostile tone.

Dash sighed. "Yeah, I'll be okay."

The room grew quiet. Finally a pink pony broke the silence.

"Soooo…can somepony please tell me if her face is gonna stay like that?"

The group let out a collective guffaw at Pinkie's joke. They continued laughing until the nurse reentered the room with a huge grin.

"Miss Dash, Miss Dash!" she called.

Dash looked up at the nurse. "Heh heh, uh yeah?" she answered.

"I have great news!"

"What is it?"

"Scootaloo has just woken up!"

This is my story, so don't complain if it doesn't turn out the way you wanted it to.