Chapter 2: The Darkness

Applebloom woke up to the sound of beeping machines and hooves clopping past along a cold linoleum floor as they went from one room to the next. Being unsettled by the darkness around her Applebloom attempted to open her eyes, but felt something pull on her left eyelid. She reached up with her hoof and felt around the area, finding some soft padding preventing her from touching the left side of her face. Out of curiosity she tried to touch the right side, finding only padding over her eye. As Applebloom continued to explore her face with her hooves she heard the sound of bags dropping near her hind legs, and was suddenly pulled up into a giant hug.

"Oh thank Celestia you're awake!" Applejack cried, her tears flowing out freely as she hugged her sister tight. Since she had just woken up Applebloom had no idea what was going on, but when she heard the sound of wood scratching on wood from down the hall it all came back to her in an instant.

Timberwolves started circling me, one of them had liked it's lips as I was looking at it while trying to find a way out. When I saw Big Mac I wanted to shout for joy, but then there was a blinding pain on the left half of my face, and I fell down. Then as Mac started to fight them another one hit the other side of my face, and then everything was black...

"Applebloom?" Applejack asked worriedly, her hooves on Applebloom's shoulders, snapping her out of her memory. When she fully came to she realized she had started to cry, but the bandages on her face were absorbing the tears. Applebloom tried to answer, but all that came out was a loud cry as the dam finally broke, and then the two sisters hugged each other, crying into one another's shoulder for a long while.

"Applebloom, we thought we'd lost you..." Applejack said as her sobs started to go away.

"I'm sorry sis..." Applebloom said sadly, her own tears having stopped coming a few minutes ago.

"No, no, it's okay..." Applejack said sadly, releasing Applebloom from the hug, "We're just happy you're okay"

"We're?" Applebloom asked, having thought that Applejack was the only pony in the room. When she asked she heard the tell tale thumps of Big Mac's hooves hitting the floor from her right side, meaning he had already been in the room. Even without seeing him Applebloom could tell he looked different, maybe even scary. There was a salty smell about him, and Applebloom could only guessing that it was because he had been crying, so she reached a hoof out towards him, hitting him in the snout by accident.

"Sorry" Applebloom whispered before moving her hoof to just below his eyes, the fur completely matted down by his tears. Without saying anything Mac leaned into her hoof, his matted fur squishing against it. Applebloom felt like telling him that everything was going to be okay, but the darkness that she was faced with reminded her that it wasn't. She was blinded, and had been in the hospital for who knows how many days now. Mac pulled away from her hoof after a minute, the feeling of his sad eyes watching her making Applebloom nervous. What if he blamed himself for what happened? It wouldn't surprising to anypony in the least if he did.

"Applebloom..." Big Mac whispered quietly, "I'm sorry..." She was right, he did blame himself for it. Applebloom heard Applejack move over to his side and whisper something into his ear. When Applebloom heard somepony knock on wood she knew it meant that they had to leave because either visiting hours were over, or she had a check up. Applejack pulled her into a hug and then lead Big Mac out of the room so he could be washed up. Once he left the room Applebloom heard her clipboard get pulled up from the end of her bed.

"How are you feeling Applebloom?" the doctor asked in a somber way, the situation he had walked into had probably caused him to to become depressed instantly. At first Applebloom didn't respond, so he just continued on his way, using magic to lift up the bandage on her right eye, the light from the room warming up the area that was covered. It was a weird feeling, which made Applebloom worry. She knew she got hit near the eye, but she was sure it wasn't hit when the timberwo-

*Poke*

"Ah!" Applebloom shouted as she jumped back into her pillows, taking the doctor by surprise.

"Oh, sorry about that, I just had to make sure the eyelid was healing properly" the doctor admitted sheepishly, embarrassed by the fact that he had made her jump. Applebloom froze when he said that, if her eyelid had to heal, it meant that it had been hit, which meant that her eye had been hit...

"I'm going to see the other side now..." the doctor said as he moved around her bed, "Are you ready?" Applebloom nodded and felt the bandage on her left eye come up. She prepared for a poke, but it never came, the only way she could tell that he was done was when was when he hummed and put the bandage down. He picked up her clipboard once more and scribbled down his notes before leaving, turning off the light in her room so it wasn't going to be on for no reason at all.

A few minutes after he left the room began to feel cold and stale, as if the light was letting her feel alive again, letting her feel warmth. When she started to fall asleep she had a mental image of the timberwolves circling her once more, this time Mac didn't make it in time and she lost more than her eyes this time, the sound of her brother's crying making her shiver. Eventually it bugged her enough that she woke up and realized that the crying wasn't a dream. Big Mac had come back into the room and was now crying right next to her bed.

"I'm so sorry Applebloom..." he cried quietly into the bed sheets. Applebloom was able to stop herself from trying to comforting him, but she wasn't able to stop herself from crying, and she definitely wasn't able to stop the nightmares she had that night...