The clinic room lay quiet. Its single occupant was curled up on one of the clean white beds, her head in her hooves and her wings in wrappings. Her mind was swimming with thoughts, each thought punctuated by the slow, methodical ticking of the grandfather clock in the corner of the room.

Slowly, the door swung open. The baby-blue mare's head shot up, only to droop down again when she realized who it was.

"Well, Rainbow Dash... fifth time this season?" the doctor said merrily, levitating her checksheet to himself. "Maybe you'll become immune to flesh wounds soon!"

Silence.

The doctor sighed quietly. What am I doing wrong? That 'comedy kit' my cousin gave me was worthless."Anyway, um, your wing should heal itself over the next few weeks, but flying's out of the question. I know that's kind of your life and all, but overstrenuous exercise... well, it's usually not good. What on earth were you doing?"

Dash muttered something from behind her hooves.

"The truth now, Rainbow Dash. You are in a doctor's office, after all."

She looked up for a moment, before resting her cheek on her foreleg. "... I broke the speed of sound. And then broke that."

The doctor glanced at her from behind his floating checksheet. "Oh, that's clever. Breaking breaking thesound barrier," he chuckled. "Seriously, though."

Dash raised her head one last time, flashing the doctor a sick-of-the-world scowl and rolling over, throwing the sheets over her and adjusting her wing with a quiet whimper.

"You're... you're serious."

"Yes."

The doctor sighed. "I should have figured, actually. One of the only living beings to create a sonic rainboom, one of the higher-ranking independent racers in Equestria... it's only fitting you'd overexert yourself like that." He paused. "But how?"

"...I don't want to talk about it." Another moment of awkward silence. "Can I leave the hospital yet?"

The doctor sighed once more, slipping the checksheet into a portfolio by the door. "Yes, you're all good to go. Do you want a prescription today, or...?"

Dash slid out of bed, shaking her head and sniffling. "Not... not today. I might come back, but..." she trailed off, and walked past him and through the door.

Maybe I should've gotten that prescription after all, Dash thought peripherally, walking quickly down the cobbled streets of Ponyville under the bright afternoon sun. She rotated her shoulders a bit, before another short burst of pain shot through her wings. With a short sigh, she looked at her hooves and began to trot a bit faster.

First point of contact: Twilight, she said to herself, taking a left to the centre of town. "You better be there, Shy," she muttered under her breath.

She reached the two-story treehouse in a few minutes, but took a second to collect herself before swinging open the front door. The resident lilac unicorn glanced up from the small green novel floating in front of her and stood to greet her friend.

"Hi, Dash, how's it -"

"Where is she?" Dash interrupted, ignoring the hoof extended towards her and looking around the high-stocked bookshelves worriedly.

Twilight put her hoof down, worry creeping onto her face as well. "Um - she's upstairs -"

"Is she okay?" Dash asked quickly, turning to trot up the curved staircase.

"Yes, but -"

Without a second thought, Dash slammed through the heavy wooden door at the top of the stairs. A wave of sudden relief washed over her as she saw Rarity sitting by the guest bed, having a conversation with - thank Celestia - her marefriend.

"Shy!" she cried, a huge grin breaking across her face. She bolted over to the bed and up to Fluttershy, wrapping her in a tight hug. "I thought you... I didn't know where... I was scared, Shy," she said, her voice breaking. She buried her head into her marefriend's shoulder. "Oh, thank Celestia. Thank Celestia."

Fluttershy smiled and blushed deeply as Dash pulled away, before looking down at her hooves and motioning towards Rarity.

"Oh," Dash chuckled, moving away slightly and looking up at Rarity. "Sorry."

Rarity smiled. "It's perfectly fine, darling. I'm sure I'm not going to be the only pony still to visit. Most everypony else already came and went, as you can tell by the... well, the balloons, for one."

Dash laughed. "What did she do this time?"

"Surprisingly, not much. Just dropped off balloons, iced cookies, and -" she motioned toward the corner of the room with a hoof "- that hot pink present over there. Along with the ones from Roseluck, Moondust, Gold Leaves, and that one navy blue stallion. The only pony who hasn't showed up yet is Appl-"

As if on cue, the second-story door opened again, with considerably less vigor. Dash grinned. "Speak of the devil..."

Dash rolled her eyes in disappointment at herself as Twilight stepped into the room, glancing at Dash and Fluttershy quickly before turning to focus on Rarity. "Hey, um, when did you get your memo?"

"About three hours ago, I believe. Why?"

Twilight sighed. "Well, Applejack isn't here yet, and I'm getting worried. Of course, she doesn't have to come, but it's one of her best friends who -"

"Wait, wait, wait," Dash interrupted. "There were memos? Why didn't I get a memo?"

Twilight shook her head. "I thought you did. I sent one to Cloudsville and Fluttershy's in case you were there..."

"But - but I should've been with her!" Dash exclaimed, sliding off the bed. "I was with her all night until we woke up this morning in - in a bit of a predicament. But that's not the point. The point is, I was at the clinic today, all day. I would've left if I could, but -"

"You were at the clinic?" Twilight asked. "Wh- oh," she said as Dash quickly showed her back.

"Yeah."

"Well, I'm - um - I'm sorry, but I didn't get all the information this morning. I woke up at six to a knocking at the door, and there was Fluttershy, standing there with an air guard. I assumed she - you know..." she trailed off awkwardly.

"No, Dash was with me," Fluttershy said quietly. "She saved my..." She trailed off and the room descended into silence.

"Don't worry about it, Shy," Dash replied at the same volume, smiling and nudging her leg.

"... I'm sorry about your wings," Fluttershy added after a moment or two or silence.

"Don't worry about it," Dash insisted, flashing a grin back to her marefriend. "You helped us out a lot later on."

"You... saved her life?" Twilight asked softly.

Dash turned around and scowled. "No, I - No. It's... I don't want any kind of thanks or anything. I did what I did, and I'm glad I did. That's - that's it."

Twilight put her head down, and turned away. "Excuse me," she squeaked before trotting out of the room.

Dash watched her leave, her reflexive defensiveness diminishing. She put a hoof against her forehead and closed her eyes. This should all be over soon.

"You know, she really is still upset," Rarity commented, eyes still on the door.

"I know." She should be.

"She sat in the library for hours crying," Fluttershy added softly. "When I realized where she was, I went to go talk to her, but... nothing I said helped."

Dash remained silent.

Rarity stood and turned to the door. "I should get going. I have a few projects I should set to work on." She smiled, an attempt at ameliorating the dark mood, before the door opened softly and a light orange mare, sans hat, joined them.

"Uh, howdy, everypony," she greeted them unsurely, closing the door behind her. "... It seems kinda tense in here," she noted, walking over to the group and tousling Rainbow's mane. "Well, aren't you a sore sight for eyes."

"It's a 'sight for sore eyes', AJ," Dash replied, the hint of a smile showing at the corners of her mouth.

"Ah meant what ah said," she grinned back, which to Dash required a knock to the foreleg. Applejack chuckled. "Seriosuly, though, are you alright, Shy?" she asked.

Fluttershy nodded, scooting to a sitting position. "Everything's back in order. But Dash is still a bit... worse for wear." She motioned towards Dash's wings.

Applejack grinned again. "What kinda stupid stunt were ya tryin' to pull this time, RD?" she asked lightheartedly.

Dash smiled again, less enthusiastically. "... Don't ask."

Rarity, who before then had been standing silently near the window, joined in briefly. "Listen, I really should get going. At least I'm not leaving you two alone," she added, winking at Fluttershy before trotting out.

Applejack looked behind her at the departing unicorn, before turning back around and shrugging apologetically. "Well, ah just stopped in to see how everypony was doin'. And everypony's doin' kinda okay, so ah guess ah should get goin', too. Afternoon." She tipped her nonexistent hat and departed after Rarity.

Dash glanced over at her marefriend and grinned, her face bright but her eyes tired. "I'll go check and see if Twilight got your status from the guard earlier." She leaned back to check her wings quickly. "You still feeling the adrenalin rush?"

Fluttershy nodded, flapping her wings lamely.

Dash shook her head and kissed her lightly on the cheek before walking away with a slight limp.

"Twilight."

The book Twilight was staring at blankly glowed pink momentarily before floating quickly away. She glanced up at the staircase near the librarian's desk. "Um... hi, Rainbow," she said, wiping at her face. "Ready... ready to go?"

"Not yet. Do you have a status on Fluttershy?"

"Like... a paper status?"

"Something like that."

She sighed, and began going through the drawers on the desk, shuffling through the scrolls and leaflets neatly organized within. "I must have put it here somewhere. One minute, let me check my filing cabinet - medical..." she trailed off, disappearing momentarily into the depths of the library.

Rainbow inhaled deeply. Why shouldn't you be mad? she thought angrily to herself. Still? the other half of her brain retaliated. Cut her some slack. Fluttershy already has. She brushed a few stray hairs out of her eyes and sniffed.

"I found it," Twilight said, walking out from the shelves under the stairs and levitating the short scroll over to Dash, who caught it with a lazy swipe. "It says that she was still in stress and under a mental duress, etcetera. She should be fine by now, if... you know, you want to..."

"Thanks," Dash replied, scanning quickly over the scroll before tossing it back and climbing back up the stairs, wincing briefly as a short shock of pain reached her.

Twilight sat down again at her desk, cringing as she heard the door shut a bit louder than was necessary.