Chapter 2: Life is not Being Alive, but Being Well

After assuring Applejack that I was in capable hooves, I forced her to leave the soulless, white, and quickly depressing hospital room that was also swiftly becoming my Bastille. I looked down at my hind legs and felt a dagger of worry jab my normally infallible calm. (Didn't you just throw a hissy fit not two minutes ago? My brain commented. I really hated my brain.) I didn't have the bits, or any bits for that matter, to pay for my operation. My mind drifted to the elderly pale green mare Granny Smith, and how I could never allow myself to be as debilitated as her. I swore by Luna's freedom that I'd make it out of here on my own four hooves. I watched the orange mare with the three... apple red apples as her cutie mark, (Really? Is all my brain had to say to that.) as she trotted out the door. I saw a maroon, muscular form standing in the hall outside in long narrow hallway of Ponyville clinic. The form belonged to the stallion that put me here, not that I held a grudge. I winced as he tapped Applejack's withers making her jump sideways, startled. I poorly stifled a snicker as the large draft horse tucked in his tail and backpedaled in embarrassment. Applejack looked relieved to see him, then shot me a funny look that I could only identify as evasive, which worried me deeply. I craned my neck and raised myself up on my forehooves, having had my bindings recently undone by the ever-benevolent Applejack. For the first time I got the chance to thoroughly observe my surroundings. I was laying in a fairly regular bed, except that it had the ability to be leaned up or down depending on how you prefer to lay, I was currently sitting up. There was a window off to my left, with blinds drawn down allowing only slivers of light to pass through, and not too shockingly one sliver seemed to rest on my eyes no matter how I sat. (Trollestia.....) A single stool rested by the right side of my bed, and a slowly fading wet spot was on the sheet next to that. (How long had she cried?...) I gave a shiver, not just at the fact that I had never hadblanket, but as my gaze ended up resting on the undone bindings for my hind legs, which were pretty useless in hindsight. My gaze couldn't move off the bindings, they sat there looking like a coiled up snake ready to strike at my useless appendages. I realized that I was all alone, and with growing trepidation it dawned on me that I would stay this way. Applejack abandoned me, and was now trying to be evasive about telling me that I was on my own. My head plopped on the pillow behind, well I'd show her, I'll get better without spending a bit of bits. I strained my brain as hard as I could trying to get any response from my hind legs. And I thought the right one may have twitched.

I shouted in joy, "Suck it Applesmack! I'll be walkin' in no time!" I hoof-pumped triumphantly. Applejack poked her head in the doorway with a scrunched up, slightly annoyed, and quizzical look, "Excuuse me?" she accusingly drawled, "I'm tryin' to hav' a conversation with mah brother." She shot me another cross look before extricating herself and her stetson from my view. I now gave up on my depressing surroundings and started listening in on the conversation happening out in the hall.

".... don't care that it happened on our land," the unfamiliar drawl of Big Macintosh began, "that money is meant for Apple family members. Ma set that aside herself when Pa....." I couldn't make out that last part. "....wouldn't want us usin' it on some strange pony who came trottin' into our orchard uninvited. I ain't willin' to go spend the last thing Ma did on somepony Ah've never even talked t' mahself!" I turned my head, hoping to hear the gentler voice of Applejack.

"Big Mac, that poor pony needs us! The nurse said she couldn't find any record of him anywhere. He ain't got a bit to his name! Tain't fair that we break his back and leave him on the street with no place to go and in a wheelchair! What would you want us to do if you were in his situation?" Applejack's voice cracked with the burden of the heaviest of emotions, guilt. I could almost hear the fresh tears begin to well up and fall. My eyes drifted to the stool, then to spot where she had buried her face and cried for Gawd knows how long. I couldn't let her continue to be forced to bear this unneeded guilt, but the only way to help her was extremely selfish. I couldn't ask them to pay for a pony they didn't know. I locked my gaze on my paralyzed legs, knowing what I had to do. I was going to do all I could do as a paralyzed pony, I was going to sit it out. (Yay! Bring on the blood clots and muscle atrophy!)

"AJ, you know we can't be nursin' some paraplegic pony with applebuck season comin' up right quick. Iffen' we do fix that poor fellar up, who's gonna nurse him back? You? Applebloom? You know we need you on the farm AJ." Big Mac was making some disturbingly good points. Maybe they should just leave me here. What good was I to a group of farmer ponies. I had a philosophy cutie mark for Luna's sake. As Applejack retorted, I shut my brain up good

"Big Mac, ah didn't know ya'll to be so heartless, you put that poor sonuvabuck in that bed. Don't ya'll feel the least bit guilty of stealing his legs from 'im?"

"Now ah never said that AJ, iffen ya'll will listen to what I'm sayin' ya'll would kno' I'm doin' as Ah always have. Ah'm puttin' the Apple family first. Just like ya'll use to...." The sadness in Big Mac's voice startled me, and as I saw Applejack's flank come into view, it startled her as well. Startled her to silence, but it spurred me to action. I spoke up, my voice a very embarrassing, barely audible squeak.

"Um… I’m right here, and I can hear you guys." Applejack's flank unfortunately left my view, but her face filled the hole it had left in me. (Wait, WHAT?!)

Applejack's pained expression, and Big Macintosh's disapproving look were enough to make me regret ever opening my mouth. They gave each other a blank stare and they both entered the room through the narrow door. Big Macintosh nonchalantly shoved aside the stool, her stool, which had become the reminder of the burden that Applejack bore, for a pony she barely knew. I grimaced as Big Macintosh put his hoof over the spot on his bed, effectively erasing all that made this room unique to me. Applejack was the first to speak up, accepting the daggers that shot out of Big Macintosh's eyes.

"Look Cato, I feel plum terrible about what happened. And I'm gonna pay for that hoity-toity unicorn fellar to come down and patch you up. It's my responsibility to get you back on yer feet, iffen ya'll will let me." Applejack's voice trembled ever so cutely, err... slightly!

"So I heard, and Big Macintosh, before you object to Applejack's proposal know this. I plan to stick around. If I heard you right applebuck season's mighty close, and I'm gonna help buck. Free of charge, for I'd be extremely grateful." (And I need words with that Twilight Sparkle) My voice was trembling similar to Applejack's, but only because she was giving me a look I hadn't been expecting, a thankful one.

"If he comes and applebucks his weight in bits will ya'll let us shell out the bits for the healer fellar?" Applejack asked pleadingly.

"Eeeyup."

****

I yawned, it had been about twelve hours since Applejack and Big Macintosh had left me. And I wasn't worried in the slightest anymore, I knew Applejack wasn't going to leave me here. They had talked to the nurse, and gave her the bits. The unicorn "fellar" was on his way here, but still wasn't due for another 4 hours. Applejack would be back then, at least I think that's what she said. In honesty, his life before and parts of his life here, seemed like he had looked down at them as a narrator or observer. His memories of then were disturbingly... third-person. I felt a tear somewhere in my head, a tear like in a tent, it let the stars and a full moon through. I conjured up thoughts of Luna's namesake. (Was it named after her? Or was she named after it?) For some reason, thoughts of the moon warmed me more than Celestia's sunlight. I felt an odd bond to the moon, and to the stars around it. I continued to lay in the same bed, in the same room, in the same paralyzed body. Dreams of the moon began to fill my head until i slowly began to drift off...

Only to wake wailing the same as before, I continued screaming as the door of my room was bucked open with an ear-splitting crack. The rest of the scream died in my throat. There before me was Applejack, wearing one of the most worried (Or is it pained?) looks I had seen her give me. In galloped a new creme stallion, he had a surgical cap and gown obscuring the rest of him. I couldn't even see his mane or tail.

My gaze came back to Applejack who was now trotting to my bed eyes squinted. I just had to ask.

"What, does my beauty shine to bright?"

Applejack facehoofed, "No, it's just... ya'll's eyes, they were doing this weird thing. It was pretty but uh...." Applejack's voice trailed off as she blushed.

I called her blush and raised her a nervous stammer, "Oh I-I... Tha-... I uh... thanks..."

The pony in the gown cleared his throat, "Ahem, well, I am Life Bloom and you are Cato?" He looked at me expectantly. I had barely heard him, my head in the clouds, or apple trees as  the case may be.

"Cato? Life Bloom's talkin' to ya'll." Applejack nudged my still tender ribs, that I'd ALMOST forgotten about.

I grimaced, but managed to say, "Hnngh... uh.... Ya I'm Cato, it's a pleasure."

"Okay well now, would you like to get started? Applejack you may want to leave for this next part."

"Uh, why do Ah need to leave? Ya'll are just gonna be pointin' your horn and usin' your weirdo powers."

"Well uh... The spine being reconstructed can be, nerve-racking," he chuckled at his joke. "The process isn't completely painless and I'm afraid your friend may have an adverse reaction to these uh... sensations." I recalled Applejack bucking down my door when I started screaming.

"Well iffen ya think it's necessary Doc I guess I'll take my leave o' ya'll. See ya Cato, you better be standin' when Ah come back." She said just as much to me as to Life Bloom. The door creaked loudly, courtesy of the newly damaged hinges. It clicked shut and I exhaled breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding.

"Rather short that one, I assume that the trait runs in the family. Now let's get started Cato. I'll just redo your restraints and we can begin."

My eyes were as wide as dinner plates, my pupils as tiny as a gnat. "Nonononononono, not those, please no, I'm terrified of those things. And anyway why tie down a paraplegic?"

He chuckled of the illogicality of the situation. "Oh come now, it's only temporary, the price you pay for your legs. Well not the only price but you catch my drift. Now I'll just..." He flipped me over and began tying my restraints on my legs, with my face buried in the plush pillow.

"Why am I face down?"

His horn began to glow as he lowered his head, "Oh, it will help muffle the screaming."

His horn gained an over-glow, and my voice gained a few decibels and octaves.