"She gonna be ok, Ruby Flare?"

She heard a disembodied voice, she couldn't make out who it was.

"Yes, she will, she may require a little rehabilitation, but she'll be fine soon enough... but"

Who were they talking about? Her? What was going on? What where they talking about?

She slowly opened her eyes and looked around. Her vision was blurry, but she could make out two ponies. One, a tall, gray unicorn with red hair, the other being a shorter, more young than the other, with orange-yellow fur and a cowboy hat.

The tiny filly managed to choke out, a strange gurgled noise that was barely audible. The blonde pony brightened up as she turned to face the half-awake filly.
"Apple Bloom! Your'e awake! Thank Celestia. How are ya feelin', sugarcube?" she asked, trotting over to the structure in which the small pony was lying on, which she then realized was a hospital bed.

Applejack? the pony thought, trying to speak but couldn't manage.

The gray pony, Ruby Flare, trotted over to Applejack.
"About your sister, Applejack," Ruby Flare started, with sympathy. Applejack looked up from her bedridden sister.
"What is it?" she asked, concerned.
"About Apple Bloom's condition..." Apple Bloom started to sit up, but Applejack pushed her back down.
"Don't move, sugarcube, your wounds are just now healing." Apple Bloom looked over herself. A large, snaking scar made its may vertically across her stomach. She looked back at Applejack, who had grabbed a mirror and lifted it to her face.

Apple Bloom noticed a white neck brace around her neck, and found that it was hard to move her neck. "Please try not to move your neck, Apple Bloom," Applejack whispered to the small pony. Ruby Flare brought back a clipboard.
"It says that while her external wounds will mend over the course of a few years..." she began. Apple Bloom gulped at the sound of that.

"I'm afraid your sister will never be able to speak again." Apple Bloom squealed with shock, that part of my voice seemed to work, she thought. so why won't I be able to talk? Her mouth reeked with the scent of old blood and she tried to move her tongue around to clean it, but found she was'nt able to move as much as she thought she would. She looked at the mirror, which Applejack had lay down for her and picked it up with her left hoof.

She aimed it toward her mouth and opened wide. She dropped the mirror in shock and watched it clatter to the floor, the shards of glass breaking into several pieces. All that was left of her tongue was a small, bloody stub. Applejack walked back over to her after being given more overview, sighing.
"Well, at least one thing's for sure..." she said, solemnly giving the news.
"At least ya got yur cutie mark," she said, pointing to the flank of the wounded pony.

It was a withering flower.