Chapter 2: Sortin' out

"Hey, hey Darcy..! Wake up...!" Said a familiar hushed voice.

"Ugh... Five more minutes..."

This was met with snickers and giggles from around the room.

"Darcy, if you don't get up this instant I'm am never letting you out with your friends ever again!" Another voice said with a tone mocking a mother speaking to her child.

I grabbed my pillow and tossed it in the direction of the voice. I opened my eyes to see Rachel trying to protecting herself with her arms as the pillow flew across my bed. But out of nowhere, Paula showed up and caught the pillow before it reached its target.

"Oh my gosh, do you know what this means Darcy?" She said as she eyed me with a questionable look. I wasn't going to like this...

"Uh..."

"Pillow fight!"

With that my friends all picked up pillows that they had beside them and threw them right at me. I tried to cover my face but it was hopeless. Abigail nailed my right on the side of my head. I shot her a mean look and at first she was a little shocked to see my face, but her expression was quickly replaced with a small laugh. This made all of my other friends around me start to laugh to and soon after, I joined in the laughter as well.

"I can't stay mad at you guys! You guys are my best friends in the entire world!" I said as I smiled warmly at them. They all returned the smile with one twice as big. It's true, I can't stay mad when I have friends like this who really cared for you. After we all calmed down a bit Abigail spoke up, a bit of shame on her face.

"I should actually get going now Darcy, coming all the way to the hospital is quite a long drive. I best be going if I hope to make it back to the farm by sunrise." Abigail said as she tipped her hat and walked towards the door. "See ya'll later!"

I looked out the window. It was quiet and dark. The moon was full and was shining as brightly as the stars around it. I turned back and faced my four friends who were carefully watching my every movement and expression searching for any signs of discomfort. Faith spoke up next in her usual soft voice.

"Yeah Darcy, I am volunteering at the animal shelter tomorrow and I need to be there early..." Ah Faith, always looking out for others.

"No it's okay Faith, I know you love to take care of the animals." I said. With that she smiled lightly and walked towards the door. "I'll make sure to visit you tomorrow Darcy. Bye."

"It's not like I am going anywhere else right?" I said with my usual edge. Faith just smiled again and walked out the door.

I turned to face the rest of my friends sitting there. They all looked a bit tired, but Rachel though look the most distressed out of the three. She will never shut up about it if she misses an order for her job. The last time she did she- I cut myself of trembling at the thought. I should just let them go.

"I know you all have other things to do than watch me sleep for half the day. You can go, I'm fine."

Hearing this Rachel immediately sat up and began to speak in her normal over the top fashion.

"Oh my goodness, Thank the lord! I knew you would understand! I am so behind on work i need to- Oof! Hey! What was that for Tia?" Rachel said.

Tia just shot Rachel a look and turned to face me.

"I'm sure what Rachel meant to say was that she is happy to see that you understand. Me and Paula have work tomorrow too so I think we should also go."

"Yeah, but don't worry Darcy! We will come and visit you as soon as we can!" Paula said as she reached over and gave me a big hug. What kind of friend would I be not to return the loving gesture. I wrapped my arms around her and gave her a big hug to match. Paula responded by squeezing me harder until I could feel some of my ribs touch one another.

"Uh... Paula..." I said faintly. I could barley breath.

"I would give you anything in the world if it made you feel better Darcy!"

I would feel my face pale as I spoke to my friend.

"Some-... Air would be nice...!"

She just looked at me with a big smile and let go.

"Bye!"  She said as she skipped out of the room with Rachel and Tia giggling as the walked out behind her. As they were making their way out a nurse in a bright white dress walked into the room with a small wooden clipboard. She looked over at my friends and then turned to face me.

"You friends really care about you. They have been here all day hoping to talk to you again." The nurse said as the set down her clipboard and small bag she was holding. Slowly she pulled out a long tube of plastic.

I cringed at the sight as the nurse pulled out a particularly large needle.

"Now I just need to inject you with some of this, doctors orders." She said slightly squeezing it to insure that it was working correctly.

I was always terrified of needles. One of the first times I got my shots I squirmed so much that the tip actually broke of the syringe. All that was sticking out was a thin metal needle. Nothing to serious, minus the everlasting mental scars. I hated needles with ever ounce of my being, especially the big ones. But this one put those all to shame. This needle was huge... I felt my body go limp as I closed my eyes and fainted. Just thinking about it touching my skin made me pass out.

~~~~~

I woke up, my mind was a little foggy as I could only remember a bit of my latest memories.

"Ah you woke up, good thing to. I can't administer the medicine if your asleep, that would be bad." Said the nurse.

I turned over to greet her and she smiled lightly at me holding the needle in mid air.

"Oh great... This again..." I muttered. Ponies...

The nurse just gave me a look as she turned her attention to me again.

"Oh, your not fond of needles. I can see that, but don't worry though, this won't hurt a bit." She said.

'Pfft, that's what they always say, but it all ways hurts like heEELLLL!! AAUUGH!! My thoughts were cut of as the nurse slowly injected me with the medicine. I felt a warm tingling coursing through my veins as it circulated through my body.

"You have been talking in you sleep Miss..." The nurse quickly glanced at her clipboard. "...Miss Dash. The doctor heard you talking to someponies. He didn't quite catch there names but he heard one for sure. Faith was it?" The nurse looked at me quizzically as if she was expecting an answer. I didn't know what to say.

"Don't worry Miss Dash, it is quite common that patients do not remember anything they dream of in their hallucinations." She said.

I lay back in my bed as I tried remembering the events from 'my dream'. It was really fuzzy now. All I could remember is the sounds of my friends voices and the pillows that were thrown at me. Was it really a dream? Slowly, I peered over my covers and onto the side of my bed hoping that there would not be anything disturbing the checkered black and white patterns on the floor.

But to my dismay, there lay five white pillows on the ground cutting large white shapes into the tiles. The nurse must of caught on and spoke up.

"Ah yes your friends were here just moments ago. I saw these pillows on the ground."

"Déjà vu..." I said quietly. The nurse just looked at me for a moment and then gathered her thoughts and spoke to me.

"Did you dream about that?" She carefully asked me with a raised brow.

I turned to face her and nodded slowly. This seemed to confirm her thoughts as she nodded politely back at me.

"It isn't unusual for ponies to dream about things they remember. It quite common, most of us do it." She said.

The thought hit me hard. Was I dreaming that up...? Did it not really happen...?

"Well that medicine should stop the hallucinations for a while." She said as she walked out the door. "Feel free to walk around if you like. It would be good for you. You have been sleeping all week you know."

With that the nurse walked out the door, leaving it open and I was by myself again. Thoughts were racing around my head at blinding speeds.

'Hallucinations...' I thought to myself. 'Was I dreaming of that...?'

I tried thinking of my friends, but is was hard. The medicine must have been through my head and washed those memories through and through by now. I pulled my covers down and took a good look at myself. My body was a bright cyan and my tail was every color in the rainbow.

'Except violet.' I though to myself.

I moved my shoulders over so that I could stretch out my wings. I observed them carefully and smiled widely.

I had always loved flying. Being high in the sky, looking at all the places I knew and loved from a full perspective. But what I loved more that flying was going fast. I remember going to a Blue Angels airshow once. I own a Cessna 210 Centurion that I flew around from time to time, but the Blue Angels were something different. They were so awesome! How they did all there stunts with such speed and grace. Someday, I was going to become a Blue Angel and I would fly among the greatest fliers in the world.

'I wonder if I can fly.' I though. I didn't know what to do at first. I tried moving the muscles on my back hoping that that would work, but it didn't. I just tensed up my back a bit and my wings stayed motionless. I tried thinking about flying next. I thought about myself hovering in the air right above my bed. I felt my wings move as I gradually lifted myself out of my bed and into the air.

'Holy crap this is awesome!'

This was such a great feeling. Although I don't remember flying with my wings, it felt strangely natural. I looked towards the window. It had already been boarded up with a large piece of plywood.

'So that really did happen.' I thought to myself.

I looked out to the door on my right. It was still wide open just waiting for me to come through it. I felt a smile creep along my face as I eyed the doorway.

'Challenge Accepted.'

I thought of myself flying towards the door, but instead of rocketing out the door and down the hallway my wings threw me backwards as I felt back into the table next to my bed snapping the legs in two. I glanced at my side looking for any bruises. The little pink cupcake that sat on the table was now smashed against my side. I carefully used my new hoof to wipe the cupcake off my side. As I flicked the remaining pink frosting of my hoof I glanced down to to see if I missed any. I looked down to see that I had a little cloud with a rainbow colored lighting bolt coming out of it etched onto my sides.

'A tattoo...?'

I brushed that thought aside though as I made my way though the door and down the hallway. I still hadn't gotten use to walking on four hooves because I must of fell over them at least a thousand times by the time I made it to the main lobby. This was met with confused stares from the ponies that were sitting patiently around me.

"Miss Dash..? Is it..?" Said the clerk at the front desk. "The doctor said it would be okay for you to leave the hospital. Would you please check out?" She pulled out a clipboard and pen from under the desk with her mouth and scribbled her signature in a couple places before she set the clipboard on the desk and nudged it in my direction with her nose.

She pointed to a line at the bottom of the sheet of paper.

"Please sign here and you will be good to go."

I looked at the pen. Reluctantly I brought my hooves up to the purple pen trying to grab it using both of my hooves, but the damn thing kept slipping out of my grasp every time I picked it up.

"Wouldn't it be easier to use your mouth Miss Dash?" The clerk said. She was giving me a weird look. I looked around the room. Every single pony in the room was looking at me funny.

"Oh yeah, I forgot... Must be that uh, medicine that I was given..! Doc said it would uh, make me all loopy." Yeah, I think I will just go with that.

The clerk just looked at me for a moment before she politely nodded. She now looks like she has dealt with situations like this before.

I looked down at the pen. Slowly I reached for it with my mouth grabbing it with my teeth. I began to write my name out.

'What the hell is my name again?' I though to myself. I almost wrote down 'Darcy' but quickly stopped after the first stroke.

'No, no, no. What did that pink pony call me?'

I could hear the familiar voice shout out to me.

'Rainbow Dash!'

I was pretty sure that was my name. Quickly I moved my mouth around and scribbled my name onto the paper, even adding my own flair to it. Strange, writing with my mouth was much, much easier that trying to write with my hooves.

"Thank you Miss..." She looked at my signature on the clipboard. "...Miss Rainbow Dash. Have a nice day." She said as she placed the clipboard back under her desk and took out some papers in which she then started scribbling some things down.

I looked around, no one was staring at me anymore. I sighed in relief, even though I loved the attention, I hate it when people, err... ponies, stare at me like that. It was really uncomfortable. I saw the door behind me and carefully made my way over there. I was about to open the door and take of into the sky when I heard the voice of a small child behind me.

"Hey! Rainbow Dash!"

I turned around to be greeted by a small orange pegasus with a short purple mane.

"Rainbow Dash! I heard you were in a really bad accident! Hows the fastest flier in all of Equestria?" It said to me. Fastest Flier in all of Equestria? Fastest Flier in all of Equestria?!?! That was a pretty nice title. I looked down at the little filly. She was eyeballing me, waiting for an answer.

"Uh...." What do I say?

"It's me! Scootaloo!"

"Uh......"

The orange pegasus just smiled at me kindly.

"Yeah you hit your head hard. I am not surprised to see you don't remember me."

Okay this was weird. I need to get out of here.

"Uh, I really need to get going, uh..."

"Scootaloo!"

"Uh, Scootaloo, I need to go, uh, practice my new stunts!" I said thinking of the Blue Angels. "Yeah! It will be awesome!" I said as I shot the little pony a look of fiery determination. This only seemed to peak the ponies interest as her eyes widened at the thought of what I might be doing.

"Oh, oh can I come!?" The orange pegasus said.

Oh this is bad, I don't want this little girl walking around with me. How am I gonna get some peace and quiet? I searched my head for some excuses as I looked down at the little filly. I noticed right away that there was a small cast on one of the back legs of the small pony.

"I'm going to be flying around real fast and, uh, I don't want you to break your other leg."

The filly looked at her good leg and her ears drooped down. It broke my heart because she looked like she was about to break into tears.

'Oh boy, another four seconds of this and I will be bawling my eyes out.' I thought to myself.

Immediately after he thought the Scootaloo's ears perked up again as she looked at me.

"I can just fly the entire time!" She said beaming with pride.

'Oh great, they just don't give up now do they. If I'm going to get some me time then I need to go all in.'

"I don't want you to get hurt Scootaloo. I know you want to come with me, but some of my moves are really dangerous and you can get really messed up in the process. You don't wanna end up like me in the hospital for a week do you?"  I said in the kindest voice I could possibly muster. The little filly looked up to me feebly smiling, her eyes all misty from her tears.

"Al-..right-... I gue-..ss-.. you're right.." She said. I was barley holding on here. With each sniffle tugging away at my heart strings I just wanted to hug the poor thing. Why not? I hugged Scootaloo as hard as I could and I folded my wings around her. She looked up to me now. Smiling at me. I smiled at her too, holy crap, it was so cute I could just die.

"Scootaloo?" Said a voice. I looked up, a pegasus dressed in a bright white shirt came up to us.

"The doctor will check out that leg now. Please come with me." The nurse said.

Scootaloo looked up to me and hugged me back. She was gripping me like there was no tomorrow. I was the first to break the silence.

"Go on Champ, I want you as good as new when I see you again okay?"

"Okay Rainbow Dash!" She said as she broke the embrace and followed the nurse down the hallway.

"See you later Rainbow!" She shouted down the hallway.

"Bye Scootaloo!" I shouted back. Holy crap, I would not keep my cool if I had to do that again. I turned to face the door, it was now wide open and I could see outside.

I pulled myself together as I slowly got up of the ground and made my way out the door. Cringing at the light from the sun, I brought my wing up above my eyes so I could take a look around. Around me were ponies of all colors just walking around minding their own business.

I smiled to myself. I stretched my wings and took to the sky. I felt absolutely great. The wind whipping around my hair, err... mane. I have never been so happy in my life. I looked down on my surroundings; I could see the hospital in the distance. It was surrounded by small homes on all sides. Nothing to unusual. I observed the sky around me taking in the beauty of it all. There was barley any cloud in the sky and they few that were floating around had ponies nestled in them.

'Holy crap, that looks awesome. I think I'll do that too.' I thought to myself as I flew over to a nearby cloud. Slowly I landed on it. I reeled back in surprise for a second before I plopped myself onto the cloud. It was soooooo plush. I though as I could feel my eyes get heavy as I dosed off.

"Even if this is a dream. I think I can get used to this." I said.

~~~~~

Author's Note: This was a fun chapter to write and I really like writing this. I also think its too much of a coincidence that the Blue Angels have the same team colors as the Wonderbolts. And how they are both Aerial Performers. Just saying...

Again, thanks for reading! I am open to comments, suggestions, and opinions. I am open to critique in general. I take everything to heart and I really mean it. <3

~Athanix,

Peace.