All right, guys. Let's do this.
Rarity and Twilight Sparkle looked up into the sky, marveling about something happening there.
Pinkie Pie trotted up to them and tilted her head. "Hi guys. What's going on?"
"It's Rainbow Dash." Rarity explained. "I've no inkling what provoked this, but she's doing some of her best material today."
"Ooh!" Pinkie looked up into the sky and slowly twisted her head around to try and follow a series of loops. The end product was a corkscrewed neck that rubber-banded and snapped back around to normal, leaving the pink mare dizzy. "She's good!"
Cobalt shot over as a blue-gray bullet, flashing a grin that almost looked like a grimace. "I saw a gathering of my friends and got the urge to join. What's up?"
"Rainbow Dash is doing some aerial tricks." Twilight told him.
"Ah." Cobalt looked up and followed the rainbow mare's trail with sharp gray eyes. "Any special occasion?"
"No… we don't know why." Rarity shrugged.
UP IN THE SKY
Rainbow Dash knew why. The real reason she was doing these stunts and flying so fast was to try to outrun her ever-growing depression. She could almost feel it following her like a black cloud as she soared through the air. But no matter how hard she tried to escape it, it always followed her. She closed her eyes and let a few tears flow down her face.
She waited a few seconds before opening her eyes. If she'd judged her trajectory right, she still had a while before she had to pull up. She let the wind whistle around her and then blinked her eyes open. She didn't have long to see, though, because before she could have even tried to pull up out of her unintentional dive, she slammed into the ground and was knocked unconscious instantly.
BACK WITH THE GROUP
Cobalt watched Rainbow dive toward the ground with growing concern. If she didn't pull up soon, she'd end up–
He gasped as she crashed into the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. He narrowed his eyes and launched himself at top speed toward his fallen friend. He got to the crash area and looked down on Rainbow's body. One of her wings was twisted a little funny and a few of the bandages on the wounds on her side were ripped off, causing a slow but steady flow of blood.
He frowned and picked her up in his forelegs, hovering into the air as the rest of the group galloped up beside him. "She's unconscious." He said flatly. "I'm going to get her to the hospital. Meet me there."
The others nodded, and as he flew away, they exchanged odd looks about the amount of concern with which he'd looked at Rainbow Dash… almost as if he cared about her more than as just a friend…
ONE TITLE SEQUENCE LATER
The black void of Rainbow Dash's mind was a barren and dull place. The only splash of color in it was the mare herself, wandering on an invisible floor through the vast expanse of nothingness.
She frowned, having never been here before, but was unable to say anything due to some invisible force that restrained her from speaking. She began to think that if this was her own mind, she wanted nothing of it. She tried to remember what had happened after she crashed, but came up with nothing.
Voices began to whirl around her.
"Is she going to be okay?"
"I don't know, that bleeding was pretty severe."
"Is her face going to stay like that?"
Rainbow blinked her eyes open and became aware that her facial features were distorted in a weird expression. She shook her head and tried to get her face back to normal. Glancing around, she noticed that she was in a sterilized hospital room, with her lying on the one hospital bed and her friends gathered around her. "What happened?" she asked the first question that came to her mind.
"Ya crashed." Applejack explained. "Cobalt brought ya here."
Rainbow grimaced. Of all the ponies who could have helped her, it had to be him. "Thanks…" she muttered, not looking directly at the dark blue stallion. "Well, I guess I'd better get out of here, then." She sat up and tried to get out of the bed, but almost instantly she let out a sharp, high-pitched cry of pain and fell back on the mattress, cradling her hurt wing. She shot a glare at Cobalt, who had leaned forward, as if to help somehow. He frowned slightly and settled back into a normal standing position.
At that moment, the doctor (the hospital one) trotted in to check up on the visitors. "Five minutes." He said, clearing his throat and trying to back out of the room without being talked to. He didn't have much luck.
"Wait!" Rainbow called. "How long am I supposed be here?"
The doctor heaved a sigh and looked up at his patient. "It's only a minor sprain, so I'd say about two days."
"Two days?!" Rainbow exclaimed, her eyes going wide. "But–I've got work!"
"No you don't." Cobalt said. "After that freak storm, they gave us all paid work leave until the higher-ups can figure out why it happened."
A small amount of fear flickered in Rainbow's eyes at the mention of the storm, but it quickly vanished. "But what about–"
"No arguments, miss Dash." The doctor silenced her. "Although I'm more worried about the reopened cuts on your side."
"Never mind those." Rainbow dismissed.
"Fine." The doctor shrugged. "Two minutes." He warned the visitors before making a hasty retreat out the door.
"Well, I have work to take care of. I'll see you when you get better." Rarity said, and with a courteous nod, she withdrew out the door.
"Ah'm with her. Ah've got to clean up the dead leaves from that storm." Applejack followed Rarity out the exit, leaving Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Twilight, and Cobalt.
"I really hope you feel better." Fluttershy said and, aware that there was only about a minute left, backed out of the room.
Pinkie Pie sat there with a content expression on her face for a moment before gasping and exclaiming, "I forgot to break the fourth wall!" and zipping out of the room at superfast speed.
Twilight frowned. "What was that about?"
Rainbow shrugged, looking away and not saying anything. The two last ponies in the hospital room with her, and it had to be Twilight and Cobalt.
"I brought something if you get bored." Twilight announced, levitating up a hardcover book.
"A book?" Rainbow snorted. "Thanks, but no thanks. Reading's for eggheads."
"Say whatever you like about it, but Daring Do, the main character, is a lot like you."
"Oh yeah? How?"
"She's unrelenting, unyielding, and completely unstoppable." Twilight said these last words over her shoulder as she exited the room, an almost mischievous smile on her face.
Rainbow let out a sound of scorn, but nevertheless put the book on the bedside table.
She glared over at Cobalt, who had been so silent that she'd nearly forgotten he was there. He easily blended in with the shadows. "Why are you still here?"
Cobalt shrugged, his expression unchanged. "Just thought I'd show that I cared." And with that, he retreated out the door.
Rainbow frowned and folded her forelegs and tried to figure out why she cared so much that he was concerned about her. She was sure she didn't have any feelings for him anymore… wasn't she? It didn't make any sense… and why was her face growing warm at the thought of his concern?!
She growled aloud and flipped over, attempting to put him out of her mind.
ONE MONTAGE OF TIME-WASTING ACTIVITIES LATER
The clock ticked over one minute.
Rainbow Dash looked at this incredulously, another growl rising up in her throat. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself, glancing around to assess what she still had to pass the time. She'd lost her red rubber ball after she hadn't bounced it powerfully enough, and that was the only thing she'd had.
She cast a glare over at the book, which was still sitting on the bedside table. She was not going to read a book, especially when it was from… her.
She sighed and tried to fall asleep, but about ten minutes later she realized it was futile, and that it would never happen while she had so much energy.
Grimacing, she reached over and picked up the book, flipping to the first page.
"Chapter 1: Grounded in a Jungle." She read aloud, rolling her eyes. "Ooh, interesting." She muttered sarcastically, but nevertheless started to read the first chapter.
Instead of being completely bored with it as she'd expected–no, almost hoped–she was sucked into an adventure with a light brown pegasus explorer who'd sprained her wing and was now stuck in the jungle, getting into all sorts of adventuring shenanigans and eventually coming face to face with her arch-nemesis, a giant blue dog-creature called (insert that name here. I don't know what it is and don't feel like looking it up).
However, when the monster spoke, its voice was instead that of Pinkie Pie. "Hi Rainbow Dash!"
Rainbow gasped as she was jerked out of the world of the book and back into reality. She quickly marked her page in the book and shoved it under her pillow, attempting to look bored. She hoped it would be nothing so she could just go back to reading, but instead (of course) it was a group of her friends, namely, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack.
"Oh, hey guys. What's up?" the cyan pegasus asked, trying to calm her breathing.
"Well, we figured you'd be bored, so–" Rarity began.
"So I got us together and we brought this so we could play to pass the time!" Pinkie Pie finished, holding up a cardboard box. Rainbow looked at it and inwardly cringed. It was Air Wars, otherwise known as the longest game ever… that is, if both sides were good at it.
"Well, let's play then." Rainbow agreed, taking the box and setting the game up on the sheets of the bed.
The game would take forever if she were to play her best, so Rainbow Dash's cunning and devious plan was: play as bad as possible. She set up all her game pieces in one big clump, and, knowing the first spot they'd guess, put the biggest piece there. One minute later, her friends had won.
"Oh well, I guess that's it." She shrugged, quickly putting the game away and handing it back to Pinkie Pie. "Well, good seeing you guys!"
The others exchanged a glance before Applejack hesitantly said, "But… ya lost. Don't ya want a rematch?"
"Nah," Rainbow dismissed. "I'm just really tired right now, that's all. In fact…" she gave a huge fake yawn and flopped onto her side, closing her eyes and hoping they didn't try to 'wake her up'.
"Oh, okay." Pinkie Pie sounded unusually uncertain. "Uh, bye then…"
There was the sound of retreating hoofsteps, and once Rainbow was certain they were out of the room, she opened one eye and, once she'd checked the coast was clear, sat up, pulling out the book and flipping to the marked page.
She began to read once more, this time making it to the point where after the brave heroine had found and retrieved the Sapphire Stone, (insert name from before here once more) captured Daring Do and took her to his jungle lair.
However at that point, she heard even more hoofsteps, and so she once again marked her place and stuffed it under the pillow. Her eyes hardened as she saw Twilight come around the corner and into her room, closely followed by Fluttershy and Cobalt.
"Hi Rainbow Dash." Twilight greeted.
"Hi." Rainbow glanced away.
"So… how are you?"
"Fine."
Fluttershy cleared her throat. "I bet you'll want to know that you've only got a little less than one day left in here."
Rainbow frowned; she couldn't have possibly been in here that long. Then she looked at the position of Celestia's sun in the sky and started. Either time had gone backward, or nearly a day had passed since she'd last checked the time. "Oh, awesome." She shrugged. "Cool."
"Anyway…" Twilight said after a few seconds of silence. "How's the book?"
"Oh, that thing?" Rainbow scoffed. "Haven't looked at it."
"It was really that boring?" Twilight looked downcast.
"Yep." Rainbow lied.
"I stand corrected, then." The purple unicorn sighed. "I guess someponies just don't like to read." She looked up with an almost fake-looking smile. "Well, good seeing you. Bye." She turned and left the room.
Rainbow turned her attention to Cobalt, who hadn't said anything and was simply staring at her with sad gray eyes. She glared at him, but before she could say anything, he frowned and turned to leave, as if it would've pained him too much to actually hear whatever she would've said.
Once he was gone, Fluttershy did something Rainbow would've never thought her capable of doing if she hadn't seen it with her own eyes: she scowled at the cyan pegasus. "Why are you so horrible to him?" she demanded.
"Maybe because he betrayed me!" Rainbow growled, irritated that her foalhood friend would question her actions.
"So what? You forgave him, didn't you?" Fluttershy mocked, once again shocking Rainbow Dash with her unusual behavior. Rainbow knew Fluttershy like a sister, and Fluttershy never acted like this.
"Yeah, I forgave him, but I still hate him for it!" Rainbow argued. "A-and why do you care?!"
"Maybe I care about both of you and I'm just sick of seeing you two fight!" Fluttershy shouted. "You say you hate him?" the butter yellow pegasus grabbed Rainbow's head and held it so that the polychromatic mare was forced to look directly at her friend. "Look me directly in the eyes and tell me you hate him!"
"I–I…" Rainbow's head whirled. The storm of her conflicted emotions seemed to sense this opening and began to rise up inside of her. She swallowed and forced them back down with the one emotion she would allow, cold anger. "I don't have to do this." She shook herself free of Fluttershy's grip.
"You're a coward." Fluttershy growled. "You're afraid, so you run away. Fine." The yellow mare turned and walked away, leaving only four parting words thrown over her shoulder. "Have fun being sad."
Rainbow sat on the hospital bed, staring blankly at the empty doorframe and wondering what had just happened to create such a huge rift between her and her best friend.
And that's where I'll cut it off this chapter. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, 'wait, isn't this an episode?' Well indeed it is. But I just had too many ideas to make it all one chapter, so I broke it into two parts. The good part is that part two will be a little shorter, ergo I'll get it out faster.
On that note, I should give you all a layout of the next few chapters.
Next chapter: Read it and Weep Part 2
After that: It's About Time
After that: Hurricane Fluttershy
And then: All the Elements for Disaster: Color the Stars
And after that: A Canterlot Wedding Part 1
I know I accidentally skipped the Flim-Flam Bros. episode, but just assume it happened as normal.
As for why I'm doing so few episodes: I love season 2 as much as the next guy, but toward the end, there are only a few episodes I consider good. So since I want to get to the finale ASAP, I'm only doing my favorites and those relevant to the plot of my story.
So anyway, thanks for reading. Radicool223 out!