Chapter TEN

Rainbow Dash was a winner. She was known for it. Renowned for it. Loved and adored for it. She won. Rainbow Dash won. It was that simple. Always had been. Always would be.

She killed an Ursa Major, one more thing to add to her long list of personal triumphs. She saved first platoon, what was left of it anyway, and probably saved second and third too. Three whole platoons. Not too many soldiers in the entire MM could claim they saved three whole platoons by single hoofedly killing an Ursa major – and by not too many this humble author of course means exactly none. She’d won. She’d won again. She always did.

Only now as she lay on her stomach in a hospital bed, wings broken, forelegs broken, body in pieces, and being fussed over twenty four-seven by Company Everfree’s ever diligent nursing staff – Rainbow Dash didn’t feel like much of a winner. She didn’t even feel like a loser. She felt like shit.

It was so degrading; all this “care,” she was being forced to endure. If anypony in this building cared about her, she thought, they’d leave her to languish on the brink of death before allowing her to slip unnoticed into blissful oblivion. And if they really cared, they’d leave her to do it in solitude. At least then she wouldn’t have to suffer the indignity of having to be fed by the orderlies. She hadn’t been laid up in bed longer than two days now, but if Nurse Tenderheart told her to “open wide for the Choo Choo,” one more time she was going to bite the old mare’s hoof and tear it off her foreleg. She hated being fed, and she hated the food, and worse she hated pissing and shitting out all that horrible food into a bedpan. And if it wasn’t the nurses and orderlies making her life miserable it was her fellow wounded soldiers. Not even two days on her stomach and they were already giving her shit. “Rainbow Crash,” they’d taken to calling her. How she loathed that nickname.

It began as an innocent enough joke. A few of the patients had tossed the name around when she was first brought in. It was no big deal then. Rainbow had even laughed at it herself. But they kept saying it, and after she snapped at one of them – threatening to tear out his horn and feed it to his asshole if he didn’t shut the hay up – they then realized they could get under her skin. Naturally, it was unanimously agreed that for the remainder of her stay, she would be referred to as Rainbow Crash and nothing else. Since then it’s been nothing but, “Hey nice landing Rainbow Crash,” or “Have fun walking for the rest of your life, Rainbow Crash!” And because the infirmary wasn’t really a hospital, just a tented off plot of land full of beds, and the wounded (if she was lucky, fatally wounded) assholes lying on those beds, Rainbow was forced to endure this school yard bullying for the entirety of her first day. And why not make her life a waking nightmare? It wasn’t everyday you had one of Sparkle’s cronies completely at your mercy, let alone Rainbow-fucking-Dash herself. How could they not take full advantage of such a choice opportunity? Why it would’ve been wrong not to.

It got so bad the first night that they had to move her to her own room, out of earshot of the others. There were a few private rooms but those were usually reserved for soldiers who were in a very bad way. The type of way you don’t get better from. It wasn’t a problem though. They had the space. That and the head of staff, a no-nonsense type who went by Doctor Hooves, had had enough of listening to his patients behaving like children.

The switch did her little good. In the end she just wound up trading one tormentor for another. The next day, when the rest of the staff discovered that one of Sparkle’s girls was getting special treatment, they made it their business to make said treatment just a bit less special. They started calling her Rainbow Crash, or just RC for short, ever since breakfast early this morning.

She couldn’t believe it. Company Everfree was full of vindictive little worms. She knew Twilight wasn’t well liked, and that by association neither was she, but this was insane. She was…she was getting picked on! Rainbow-fucking-Dash was getting picked on. Winner of the last best young fliers contest since the start of the war, and the only pegasus to ever master the sonic rainboom, not to mention savior of three platoons – getting picked on like some elementary school blank-flank. Who the hay did these jokers think they were? Who did they think they were talking to? Rainbow Crash, indeed. When she got out of this bed, they’d see a Rainbow Crash all right. She’d crash her hooves up and down their backsides, the hateful little sons-of-mules.

Eventually word of her treatment got out to the right pair of ears, and a little while after breakfast, Fluttershy came storming into the infirmary: paralyzing ponies with her glare, shouting something about nopony picking on any friend of hers so long as she was around, and generally raising several different shades of hell. It was mid-afternoon now and her little guardian angel still hadn’t left. Fluttershy was a medic herself and insisted on being Rainbow’s personal caretaker until her duty as Twilight’s number two called her elsewhere.

While Fluttershy was definitely a marked improvement over the patients with their taunts and Tenderheart with her infernal Choo Choo, Rainbow wasn’t exactly happy with Fluttershy’s mother hen approach either. She didn’t like having her pillows fluffed every other minute, and she didn’t like Fluttersy offering to sing her lullabies to help her rest, and she really didn’t like Fluttershy’s tone; like a mother cooing at her precious little baby girl. Rainbow hated being cooed at. She’d never before known what a horrible thing it was to be cooed at, nor had she ever noticed how unbearably grating Fluttershy’s voice was. So soft and sickeningly sweet. Rainbow remembered a time when she was just a little filly, gorging herself on cotton candy while watching the wonderbolts perform at the annual best young fliers contest. She remembered that day, because that was the day of Spitfire’s debut performance as the newest head of the wonderbolts. Her mother had warned her not to each too much of the sugary fluff or she’d get sick, but Rainbow never was much of a listener. That’s how she felt now. Like a little filly who’d had her fill of things soft and sweet.

“I’m fine now,” said Rainbow, pushing her lips into an exaggerated pout. “Seriously, I’m fine. You should go. I’m totally sure there’s something more important you could be doing right now.”

That wasn’t true. She couldn’t move her body from the waist up, and she had to lay awkwardly on her stomach with her wings spread wide, encased in casts that had to be suspended by a pair of hooks that hung from the ceiling. Wings were delicate things and had to be set just so to ensure they healed properly. The breaks in Rainbows wings were so extensive that they called for the suspension treatment. This meant that the wings had to stay spread, and stay elevated so that when the bones do heal, they slip back into the proper alignment. Pegasus ponies dreaded hearing the word suspension from their doctor’s mouth. For most it meant your wings would be saved, but they’d be little more than back ornaments; serving no function outside of pure aesthetic appeal. Odds of flying again after having you wings suspended were very near zero. Spitfire had undergone the treatment. She managed to beat the odds, but then – she was Spitfire.

When the bad news was broken to her, she waited for the doctor to leave, squeezed out a few tears in the short time the room was empty before the nurses arrived, and then allowed herself no more grieving over the loss of her wings.

So no, Rainbow Dash was not “fine now.” She was about as far as from “fine now” as a pony could be, but she had a nagging feeling that she’d be a little better off if Fluttershy would take her cotton candy voice, and her pillow fluffing hooves, and flutter out the fucking door.

“Oh I can’t leave yet Rainbow, not before your surprise gets here,” said Fluttershy, flashing a completely clueless smile. Surprise? Rainbow was beginning to wonder what she ever saw in a pony like Fluttershy. Surely this friendship must have been forged during a moment of weakness.

“But in the meantime is there anything I can get you? Are you hungry? Maybe something to drink? Or something to read? I could find you a book. I could even hold it for you and turn the pages when you tell me.”

Actually, Rainbow needed to urinate pretty bad, but she was holding it because she’d be damned before she let Fluttershy hold the bedpan under her while she watched her go.

“No. It’s all right, I’m fine,” she said, letting out a long sigh. It was going to be a long day, and a longer rest of her grounded life.

Meanwhile, just outside of the infirmary, Lieutenant First Class Twilight Sparkle waited in apprehensive silence. Private Pinkamena Diane Pie and Specialist Rarity waited alongside her.

Turns out, they hadn’t been waiting for Twilight after all. Actually they hadn’t expected to see her today, sure that her meeting with the major would leave her little time to herself. When the three platoons had arrived safely back to camp, Fluttershy told the others of what had happened to Rainbow Dash and naturally they all made it their first order of business to visit her as soon as possible. Being a medic herself, Fluttershy was already inside attending to Rainbow. Twilight had showed up out of the blue, so that only left Applejack. Rarity hadn’t expected Twilight to show, but now that the lieutenant was here she felt slightly less anxious. It was comforting to know that they were doing this thing together. They could get through it if they just stuck together; this day and all the days ahead.

Of all of them, Rarity had taken the news of Rainbow’s potentially debilitating injury the best. If it were Fluttershy, or even herself laid up in a hospital bed then there may have been some palpable cause for concern. But Rainbow Dash never fly again? Pfft. She would sooner believe Pinkie giving up sweets, or Applejack renouncing farm life and moving to Canterlot to study law. Ridiculous. That’s all Rarity had to say about that. Absolutely Ridiculous. Rainbow was a fighter. She’d come out of this with flying colors, literally with flying colors, and a few weeks from now they’d be laughing themselves sick over the whole thing.

Of course AJ had taken the news the hardest. It was not exactly a secret that she and Rainbow had feelings for each other, though engaging outright in romantic relationships with fellow MM was strictly prohibited, as stated under article such-and-such, in paragraph who-gives-a-flying-mother-fuck, of the Millitiamares code of conduct. Trying to keep a bunch of young filly’s and colts camped out in the woods for months at a time from, “engaging in romantic relations,” was like…well like trying to keep Rainbow Dash out of the sky. There wasn’t a whole lot to do between skirmishes, and being a Millitiamare was a lousy enough job already. Low pay. A plethora of occupational hazards, most of them lethal. Long hours. The worst bosses. The least the brass could do was look the other way when a couple of love birds wanted to fool around after hours. It was one of those rules nopony at the bottom paid any mind to, and nopony at the top bothered to enforce. The brass knew what went on and they let it happen. Probably figured a little fooling around was good for morale.

They weren’t exactly madly in love, RD and AJ, but they were definitely fooling around. When AJ heard the bad news she tried acting like she wasn’t bothered. Like her heart didn’t just split in two at the mention of her partner having to live out the rest of her life as a cripple. But then that was Applejack these days; ever the proud stubborn ass. She and Rainbow had that in common. Neither of them really did sad; just angry. Which meant when AJ did arrive she was sure to be in a pissy mood. If nothing else, Rarity could at least take some solace in knowing that Applejack wouldn’t be hostile with her. Not after the moment they shared on their way back from the battlefield. Come to think of it, Rarity had made some progress with Applejack, had she not? Rarity certainty thought so, and with some luck maybe AJ had given up some of that anger, or at the very least was saving it for the enemy instead of spitting venom at the only ponies who gave half a damn about her.

As they waited, stewing in that tense silence, it occurred to Twilight that she hadn’t seen Applejack since there blow up way back before the mission. Seemed like ages ago now. Twilight was sure that the young apple-bucker wasn’t still holding on to any animosity between them. After all, were they not in a war? Fighting a real enemy that would readily murder any among them in cold blood, and parade their severed heads on the bayonets fastened to the ends of their riffles? Was there really time for infighting?

But as Twilight watched Applejack appear from out of the forest, making her way over to wear the three of them stood, she could tell already it wasn’t going to be friendly reunion. AJ wasn’t yet close enough for Twilight to make out her expression; but Twilight could tell by the way she moved, purposely, each forward stride electric with miss-placed aggression. She stomped toward them like a lone buffalo stomping toward an Appleloosian settlement. There was thunder in her hooves. Lighting in her limbs. She trotted right up to Twilight and saluted. Her mane was disheveled. One of her cheeks was noticeably bruised, and the eye opposite that cheek was an ugly mix of purple and black, and slightly swollen. Souvenirs from her scrape with Lyra. From the look of her face one could safely assume the unicorn had gotten the better of her, though AJ would never admit it. She’d always attribute the loss to her injury.

“Private First Class Applejack reporting for duty, sir!” she trumpeted, her voice wet with mock enthusiasm. She regarded her commanding officer with hard eyes, and sure enough the expression answered Twilight’s queries. What had she been thinking? Of course there was time for infighting. There always was where AJ was concerned. “Sir, we wasn’t expecting ya, sir. But we’re so glad ya decided to grace us with ur presence today, sir!” She struck the sir like a judge accenting his words with a whack from his gavel. “Or are y’all going by ‘Equestria’s favorite daughter’ these days sir!” she added, spitting the words in the unicorn’s face.

“You watch your tone when addressing your commanding officer,” responded Twilight.

“Why don’t ya make me watch ma tone. Sir.”

It was like no time had passed for them at all for them. They fell right back into that familiar rhythm; spiteful tones, dirty looks, and violent aggression. The rest of them were here to wish there friend Rainbow Dash a speedy recovery, but it was clear Applejack had come looking for another fight.

Truth be told, AJ did resent Twilight’s undeserved status. Not in the military, but in life. She was an elite. A Canterlot unicorn. Top of the Equestrian food chain. Sure the princess liked to pretend that all Equestrians were free and equal under her rule, but there was no denying the reality of the social pecking order. And if Canterlot unicorns were at the top, then it wasn’t hard to guess who was on bottom. Being an earth pony from nowhere was a dangerous thing to be. It meant you were expendable, and when the revolution happened ponies like Applejack were first to get drafted. And not just ponies like Applejack, every single able bodied colt, filly, mare, and stallion of the apple family received the same letter in the mail. Every single one, war bound. She had to send Apple Bloom and Granny Smith to stay with the Oranges in Manehattan. There was no one left back home to look after them. No notice. No say. Just your name on a little slip of paper and a destination. All of them. Supposedly names are dumped into the system and then selected at random, so there was absolutely no way every member of a family as big as hers could’ve gotten mailed that same letter. It was a game of chance alright, but the house always played with a stacked deck. And they wonder why they have a rebellion on their hooves in the first place.

Twilight wasn’t drafted, nor was Rarity. The both of them chose of their own free will to come to this hell hole, and that Applejack respected. What she didn’t respect was being forced to kill and die protecting a regime that failed to offer her and her family that same choice. When she first met Twilight back in basic they got along, became fast friends. AJ had promised herself then that she wouldn’t hold it against the Canterlot unicorn; that she wouldn’t use her as a scapegoat for venting her frustration. But everyday spent out here in the forest chipped away at her. The killing. The dying. The sleeping on the ground and eating rations. Taking orders. Yes sir. No sir. Sorry sir. Right away sir. Every day she spent out in the forest took a little something away from her, and every day that promise she made back in basic became harder and harder to keep.

A good foot of empty air stood between them but Twilight felt AJ was only centimeters away.  

“Oh, nice shiner Applejack,” and then suddenly, as if by some act of matter displacement, Pinkie Pie materialized between them. Her own proportions seeming to distort in order to occupy the small space. “Nice, but I’m afraid it’s got nothing on this baby here,” she said pointing to her own black eye. "I named her Blurple! Ya know, cause she’s black. And also purple.”

Pinkie Pie was in that brawl too, and if she knew AJ, she knew the apple-bucker couldn’t resist reminiscing over a good brawl.

A confused look crossed AJ’s face, but then vanished as quickly as it came. “Mighty respectable Pinks, but take a lookie here,” answered AJ with a proud grin. She pulled down the collar of her uniform and revealed a bandage taped to her left shoulder. “Little bastard Lyra stuck me with her horn.”

Pinkie laughed and bounced in place. “Well I see your stab wound and raise you…” she held the you for as long as it took her to roll up her sleeve and reveal a nasty looking bite mark on the inside of her foreleg. Applejack’s grin broadened. They went on like this for three more injuries, making a game of it. For the moment at least, AJ let go of her grudge with the unicorn, forgetting her completely in favor for a laugh with her fellow earth pony.

“Really Pinkie, you shouldn’t encourage such barbarism,” offered Rarity with an airy tone, happy to see the tension between private and lieutenant derailed, or at least delayed. “As per usual, I see it is up to me to act as the sensible one here. Follow me my dears.”

Rarity led the way with Applejack and Pinkie walking side-by-side, both of them laughing: Applejack claiming Pinkie’s injuries to be paltry scratches compared to her own, and Pinkie arguing the opposite.Twilight brought up the rear. As they passed between the doors, Pinkie looked over her shoulder and gave the lieutenant a quick wink with her black eye. Twilight nodded. Classic Pinkie, always good for morale.

Back inside her private room, Rainbow urinated into the bedpan with a look in her worn out face that could only be described as complete and utter defeat. She wasn’t winning today. She told Fluttershy to just position the miserable little thing underneath her, then ordered her to leave.

Pissing was awkward to say the least. Since she didn’t have the use of her forelegs, she had to essentially stand up on her hind-legs while laying on her face and aim blindly for the bedpan underneath her. And as if this were not hard enough, her neck was also in a brace that restricted her movement and made the whole face balancing act a rather painful and precarious affair. As uncomfortable as the endeavor was, Rainbow preferred it this way. She’d sooner risk breaking her neck than let Fluttershy assist with this in anyway. Only now, as the last few drops trickled out from between her legs, did it occur to her that she needed the little pink tailed idiot to wipe her down.

And that was the last straw. The image her fragile mind conjured of Fluttershy taking one of those putrid smelling sterilized cloths and running it between her legs as she cringed – that image was one that broke her. This was going to be rest of her life, she thought. Her mind took the idea and ran with it. Suddenly it was no longer the use of her wings she had lost, but the use of her forelegs too. And her neck. What if her neck never healed properly? She’d have to pea laying on her face, and be fed, and looked after for the rest of her life. Her miserable grounded life. She was born in the clouds and now she was going to die on the ground. The thought finished her. She didn’t let herself cry but she might as well have. She was beaten.

For a good three or four minutes longer than she probably should have, Rainbow stayed in that awkward position, her neck feeling as though it were ready to snap in two as she assessed her options. There weren’t a lot. She could stay like this and pray that her neck did snap, granting her a quick and merciful death. Or she could call Fluttershy back in the room and cringe as the pink tailed idiot wiped her with a cloth that reeked form whatever they used to sanitize those things. She actually considered choosing the former, but decided against it. She didn’t want to be remembered as Rainbow Dash, the fearless soldier who saved three platoons only to later die belly down in a pool of her own urine. She was just about to call Fluttershy back in, when suddenly the door swung open and in trotted her worst nightmare. She would have thought it better if Lord Discord himself slithered through those doors and took her from behind, but instead it was all of them. All big eyed and looking like idiots.

“Surprise,” beamed Fluttershy with outstretched forelegs, looking like the biggest idiot of them all. “See Rainbow, all of your friends came to visit you.” She floated there in the door way, beaming and expecting a response. The room stayed as silent as a grave. “…Rainbow?” she tried tentatively.

She didn’t even bother looking up at them. It was too much. Fluttershy alone she could just barely deal with. But the whole gang seeing her as an invalid. It was just too much.

“Get out,” she heard herself snarl, her voice low and empty. She hadn’t meant to sound so harsh, but couldn’t help it.

“…But Rainbow, we all came to see you. We –”

“Please Fluttershy. All of you. Please just get out of here.” Fluttershy’s lips parted to say more, but Rarity, noticing the bedpan – full and glistening a fresh yellowish gold – realized that their timing was impeccably horrendous, and shot Fluttershy a stern look. The type of look that suggested she should perhaps shut the hay up.  

Apparently their ill timing hadn’t crossed AJ’s mind. She ran to Rainbow’s side, placing the bed pan on the ground so that Rainbow could lay down. Then she tried to nuzzle her cheek but the injured pegasus leaned away as much as the neck brace would allow, refusing to even look at her.

“Don’t be like that sugar cube,” said AJ in the softest voice she could muster. “We’re here for ya. Ah’m here for ya, so don’t be like that.”

Rainbow stared a hole into the wall directly in front of her. “Don’t touch me.”

“Come on sugar cube, don’t be like that.”

“Don’t call me sugar cube. Don’t touch me. Just get out.”

Applejack had to suppress a frustrated nay that had been sitting in the back of her throat since she walked up to Twilight outside. She couldn’t stand seeing Rainbow like this. Defeated. She’d known Rainbow Dash for a long time and she’d never known her to be the type to roll over. To go down without a fight. Applejack remembered a time when she was just a little filly, staring out of the window of Manehattan brownstone, homesick for a place she didn’t know she loved. If not for the guiding light of Dash’s sonic rainboom she may very well still be staring out that window, or another like it; empty and crying out to be made whole. Rainbow Dash had made her whole that day. And now here she was: laying in a hospital bed in a Godless corner of Equestria, broken. Fractured. Less than what she once was.

Applejack turned back toward the door and scanned the sad sick faces of her friends. Pinkie looked as though she were in a daze. Rarity and Fluttershy were on the verge of tears. Then she fixed her sights on Twilight and a cold, heavy realization struck the unicorn like a slap. There was something final in Applejack’s eyes. Something decisive, and absolute, and unrelenting. Twilight didn’t want to believe it. They were friends after all. They’d seen each other through the worst of it. Training. Ponyville. She’d comforted her then. Held the trembling blond earth pony in her forelegs on the nights when watching her home torn asunder proved too much. They were friends. The very best of friends. But in spite of their friendship, there it was anyway. That look of finality in her eyes. Spitting on it. Spitting on it and rubbing it into the dirt.

“You…you’re blaming me for this…” said Twilight. She was in agony. She’d never known a hurt this deep before. “You think this is my fault.”

Applejack was silent. They all were. The tension between them was a living thing. It snaked around them and squeezed.

“You really think I did this. Somewhere in that pea sized hill-billy brain of yours you’ve got this whole thing figured out don’t you?”

“It was ur mission. Ur plan. Ya put her out in front Twi. Used her as bait,” growled AJ.

Twilight fumed. She stepped forward and seemed to clear the distance between herself and her private in one great stride. They were practically nose to nose.

“Twilight don’t,” squeaked Fluttershy.

“Shut up Fluttershy!” she neighed. “Can’t you see me and Applejack are discussing a very serious matter? Applejack here was just about to explain to me how the fucking Ursa Major was my fault!”

“Twilight, please don’t do this.”

“Go on Applejack, you have the floor. Tell me – tell all of us how this whole terrible mess is my fault. Go on. We’re all ears.”

“Listen to yourself Twilight –”

The angry unicorn’s horn sparked, snaring Fluttershy by the collar in her magic grip and slamming her roughly to the floor. “Not another word out of you sergeant. That’s an order,” she hissed, keeping Fluttershy pinned. Pinkie and Rarity dared not move an inch. A few of the orderlies appeared in the hallway, drawn to all the commotion like moths to an open flame. Twilight turned to face them. Her horn shined a bit brighter and that was all the incentive they needed to steer clear.

“Well, Applejack? We’re waiting.”

Applejack was silent. There was nothing left to say.

“Okay,” the pale wisp of purple light took hold of Twilight’s uniform shirt and wrenched the piece of fabric over her head, then tossed it to the floor at Applejack’s fore-hooves. “Me and you. Outside. Right now.”

Applejack eyed her carefully. “Why, so ya can twist ma’ head off with ur magic? No, ah aint gonna fight you. ”

“If I wanted to twist your head off I’d have done it already. I don’t need magic to deal with some dumb farm girl from the sticks.”

Twilight released her grip on Fluttershy, who then jumped back up to all fours. She started to raise more protest to this absurdity, but Rarity quieted her.

“Let them fight,” she said in hushed voice, sounding surprisingly calm. “I think they need this.”

Twilight stormed out of the room, shoving past the others, and was followed by a flustered Fluttershy, a cool headed Rarity, and a mildly amused Pinkie Pie. Applejack gave Rainbow Dash one last glance, before storming out herself. She thought to say something before going, but really, what was there to say. Everything was coming apart.

Years ago a small filly with a big heart and a rainbow mane darted across the sky, and the sights and sounds she left in her wake helped five strangers find their cutie marks – find themselves and their places in the world. Once upon a time that rainbow had been their mortar. She had brought them together and kept them strong. But for the blond earth pony still standing in the room beside her, she had been a bit more than that. For Applejack she had been a light in the darkness. A way home. And what was she now? Nothing. Nothing but a heap of ruffled feathers pissing into a bedpan, her spirit broken as if it were just another bone in her body. Applejack looked down at Rainbow and a thought flashed through her head. It came and went as quickly as Rainbow used to fly, but Applejack would always hate herself for entertaining it, even if only for a blink. She looked down at Rainbow and thought it better if she never flew again. Better to be brought low with the rest of them, because as she was now, Rainbow Dash no longer deserved the privilege of walking beside the clouds.

Applejack shook her head and then left. Twilight was waiting for her outside, and the bucking owed to her was long overdue.

They fought like soldiers: tearing into each other with a savagery better reserved for a truer enemy. They bucked and butted; thunder in their hooves and lightning in their limbs.

Applejack bucked Twilight in the mouth, busting her lips open. Twilight answered, butting Applejack in the face and making a bloody mess of her nose.

They tired, and as they tired they fought like children: wrestling on the ground, rolling around and looking to all the world like a mass of wild limbs and mangy manes. Twilight sunk her teeth into Applejack’s ear, threatening to tear it clean off her head, and earning a surprised and agonized squeal form the apple-bucker. She kicked at the unicorn, desperate to free herself, her hooves going to work on Twilight’s upper body like a pair hammers laying into a railroad spike.

They matched each other blow for blow for a good while, but as the fight went on an obvious victor was beginning to emerge. Applejack was stronger, faster, and the only reason Twilight hadn’t already been reduced to a bloody smear was because the fighting had opened AJ’s stitches, and the pain in her side had slowed her down, as well as taken some of the steam out of her bucks. Some but not nearly enough. She caught Twilight with a buck to her side that wobbled her, and then another to the neck that floored her. Then she rose up on her hind-legs and proceeded to stomp the unicorn's face until it disappeared entirely, completely veiled by a bloody mask.

Fluttershy watch what had started as fight devolve into a malicious beating, and decided she had seen enough. She beat her wings and in a flash she was on top of Applejack, encircling the earth pony’s neck in her forelegs and trying to pry her off of Twilight. But Fluttershy wasn’t exactly known for her physical prowess and Applejack was…well she was Applejack, and she kept right on bashing in Twilight’s face as if Fluttershy were still standing off to the side.

“Get off of her!” shouted the pegasus pony, pulling with all her might, and for her effort didn’t even succeeded in getting Applejack’s attention. No, Applejack couldn’t be distracted now. Twilight’s skull was still round and that didn’t sit well with apple-bucker one bit. She would stop when it was nice and flat. She stomped, and stomped – neighed like mad bronco – and stomped, and…gasped? Suddenly she couldn’t breathe.

Fluttershy had her eyes closed, straining to free Twilight, then all at once she tumbled onto her back, taking AJ down with her. Her eyes snapped open to find Applejack laying on top of her, blue-faced and pawing at her throat. AJ’s eyes bulged. They were unfocused and beginning to resemble glass. She gasped and kicked her hind-legs wildly, as if trying to fight off some invisible assailant. Frightened and confused Fluttershy looked to Twilight. The unicorn was struggling to get back to her hooves, eyes glowing from behind the mask of blood that was now her face, and sparks leaping violently from her horn.

Blue-faced Applejack. Glowing horn. It took Fluttershy almost a full minute to make sense of what was happening. Thankfully, Rarity thought faster than Fluttershy.

Her own horn sparked as she galloped over to the fiasco that she now regretted ever encouraging in the first place. She tried to counter Twilight’s spell with her own but, where Twilight’s mastery of magic was an ocean, by comparison, Rarity’s was little more than a puddle. Breaking her hold on Applejack before the life was completely ringed out of her was going to take nothing sort of an act of Celestia.

“Twilight stop! You’re killing her!” she shouted, straining against Twilight’s seemingly limitless magical energy. It was so raw. So unfocused, but still too much for Rarity to handle alone. Too much. Too much, think Rarity! She screamed inside her own skull. “Are you really going to kill her over this, nonsense! Twilight listen to me!” It was no good. Twilight was beyond reach, her eyes sparking with the same purple light as her horn. She was gone. In a minute – maybe two –so would Applejack.

“Horse apples! Pinkie Pie, don’t just stand there, do something!” Rarity whipped her head around in search of the pink pony, but she was gone as well. “Pinkie Pie!?” Rarity bit her bottom lip. This was it. This was the end of it. One crippled. One dead. This was the end of a long happy friendship. How selfish she had been for thinking this whole time that what the six of them had was somehow special. That it was impervious to the harsh realities of the world, and that by believing in it they too were impervious. The magic of friendship, she thought. Selfish and deluded. One crippled and another dead. Just where was the magic in that?

Rarity despaired. She shut her eyes and gave up. Had she only peeked over her shoulder though, she would have found exactly what she was looking for. She would have found the magic.

“What the hay is going on out here,” called a familiar voice. “I leave you jokers alone for one minute and you all go to pieces on me.”

Eventually though Rarity did turn around, and so did Fluttershy, Twilight, and even Applejack.

At the sound of the familiar voice, Twilight released the blond earth pony. The strength and certainty in it swept away the fog pervading her clouded mind. It always did have that effect on her. So brave, but more important than that, so sure. How many times had that assurance lent her strength when she doubted her own? How ever many times it was, after today she could add another.

Applejack let out a huge gasp before erupting into a fit of coughs. She collected herself much quicker than her condition should have allowed, and looked up to find the owner of the familiar voice, unable to believe what she was hearing. Then she saw her. Admittedly not her flashiest entrance, but it was one of her more powerful ones. She saw Rainbow Dash, laying across Pinkie’s back, coming to save them all one more time.

Classic Pinkie Pie: always good for morale.

Applejack leapt up to her hooves and made a dash for Rainbow, scooping her up off of Pinkie’s back and cradling her in her forelegs.

She searched Rainbow’s eyes for any traces of defeat but found none. “Ah didn’t mean any of it,” said Applejack between tears.

“I know you didn’t,” answered Rainbow, unsure of what AJ meant, but electing to just go along with it for now. They embraced. Kissed. And when the kiss ended Rainbow added, “Hey could you ease off a bit. I’m in a lot of pain right now and can barely even stand.” So AJ went back down to all fours, and Rainbow leaned against her, using the earth pony’s strong body as crutch.

Twilight spat blood form a broken jaw. She tried to stand, but her head was still spinning, both form the beating she took and the energy expended. Just as she was getting her hooves back underneath her, she collapsed. Fluttershy knelt by her side, wiping the blood from her face with a sleeve, cooing, and instructing her not to move too soon.

“Good thinking Pinkie,” said Rarity. She trotted over to Pinkie, then, exhausted, she plopped down on the ground where she stood. She grass was soft and she was very tired. Pinkie sat down beside her.

“I had to beg her to out of that bed. She looked so beaten. I didn’t think she would at first, but I told her her friends needed her. Guess that was enough,” said Pinkie with a relieved grin. After a quick thought she added, "Oh yeah, I also had too..." but rather than finish the thought, she made an odd wiping motion with one upturned hoof.

"Goodness Pinkie!" exclaimed Rarity, a light blush coming over her face, "how indecent!" She gave the pink pony a playful shove, as her lips formed an embarrassed smile.

“If this is what we do to each other, I’d hate to see what would happened if the rebels ever got a hold of us,” she joked, earning a small laugh from Rarity.

“We made it though,” said Rarity as she watched Fluttershy fuss over Twilight and Applejack fuss over Rainbow.

“We always do,” said Pinkie, letting an uncharacteristically serious tone creep into her voice.

“Yeah, we always do.” Maybe there was something to this, magic of friendship, shtick after all. Rarity leaned against Pinkie Pie’s shoulder and let herself believe that they would all be okay.

Their conversation paused. Then, “Rainbow Dash taught me how to smile,” said Pinkie plainly, as if unaware of the gravity of what had just come out of her mouth.

“That’s heavy,” answered Rarity just as plainly. Too heavy considering what they had just been through. She decided to lighten the mood. “All this excitement has left me famished. Care to join me for a bite in the mess hall, dearest.”

“Sorry. There’s something I got to do.”

“What?”

“Just something.”

“Just something?”

“Yeah, just something.”

“Just something…All right then.”

“I should probably get going now actually.” The two of them sat together like that for awhile. They watched the others sulk back into the infirmary, each noting how Applejack and Twilight scarcely looked at each other as they passed through the doors. “It’s actually pretty important. Urgent to.”

The two of them sat there on the grass, Rarity leaning on Pinkie’s shoulder, not saying anything. Staring straight but not looking at anything in particular.

“Yep, I really should get going…” They kept right on sitting. Pinkie fidgeted. For a moment it looked as though she was going to get up, but she only adjusted herself as to nestle Rarity’s head deeper into the crook of her shoulder and neck.

“…any minute now.”

Next Chapter: Chapter ELEVEN Estimated time remaining: 17 Minutes