yipee

"Well if it isn't the town square, still standing in my abscence."

Apply jack looks upon the bustling marketplace in awe.

"any specific places you want to see?" asks twibright.

"wherever apply wants to go" says rainbow dash.

Apply adjusts her mildly chewed straw hat.

They step into the crowd. Rainbow is taking small, small steps. Twibright cautiously pushes Apply's wheelchair. Apply swings her front legs in the open air and narrowly misses a stranger's hoof.

They pass by a cardboard booth.

"hey everypone i'm selling my spiritual healing dog he's a bodhisattva" "whatthe hell" "he doesn't cosr money" "he costs my soul?" "No, no money"

Apply suddenly perks up.

"Hey now! Why don't we swing by my favorite pub? It's in the area."

"a pub?" Asks rainbow.

"My favorite pub, the Toothy Hare! I used to go here all the time with poinky on mah off days! Now I can finally bring someone else!"

"The... toothy hare?"

"the toothy hare."

"don't ask questions." Says apply jack.

A small horse walks past muttering to herself. "now where did Little Charlotte run off to this time?"Twibright turns to talk, but she's gone into some alley already. Those always creeped Twi out. But only in real life because alleys are way cool in fiction where she doesn't have to actually be in a real alley.

"aren't pubs more of an...evening activity?" Asks twibright. "Are they even open this early?"

Apply answers. "We'll have to see for ourselves, won't we Miss cart-pusher?"

So twibright and rainbow accept their fate. . .

Trudging along to the delicious pub...

And...

It's closed.

"Rainbow can't eat solid food anyway. It would've been torture for her."

"i forgot my chew toy at home" blurts out rainbow.

"...chew on my hat some more?"

"no, it looks too cute on you. I mean cool. But not 20%."

"well at least we still have the hub, right girls?" Says twibright.

...

"the hub of commerce? The market? Um, shopping?!" She clarifies.

Rainbow follows only when she sees how far ahead the others had already gotten.

So they go back...

They pass by the cardboard booth again...

"Free spiritual healing dog everypony!" "hey that's my dog!" "He will heal your soul"

The salespony simply walks away...

"Looking for a gift for your special somepony in the hospital? These candles are pure beeswax—and scented with real flowers from the everfree..."

"get your parasitic worms here! I HABE WLRMS #ihaveworms DOT NET onthe equestria wode web html page BUY MY PARADITIC WORMS ONLINE! @ ME ON PONEBOOK! I HABE WOMS!"

Rainbow dash scampers back to the edge of the crowd and doesn't stop. Twibright chases her.

"i think i need to go"

"why?"

"i dunno, something's wrong, i need to go NOW"

Rainbowdash scampers fastly at her maximum speed and trips on a rock.

She catches herself with a swift burst of air from her unbandaged wing. Just enough to break her fall. The rock leaves a faint pink imprint on her face and no more.

Twibright stands over her nose. . ."here, why don't we-"

Rainbowdash tickles her nose with a feather and scampers while she sneezes.

"THATS NOT VERY HYGENIC OF YOU RAINBOW DASH!"

Rainbow doesn't slow down. Twibright sighs. She uses her magic to float rainbow into the air. No longer able to run, she becomes peaceful?

"ivenever felt like this before" says Rainbow.

"what I was saying is why don't we get you somewhere you can rest? Back to the facility? Or maybe to the gardens?"

"i'm so hihg up" says raimbow "but im not even flying"

She is 2 feet off the ground.

"...

well?

rainbow dash?

I'll uh give you a minute to think, then."

Twibright counts the seconds while retrieving apply jack in her wheelchair.

"oh so now you come back for me. She's not a fan of the candle scent or...?"

twibright is busy counting seconds and holding her breath while wheeling her.

"it's not her ailment, is it?"

Twibright gasps.

"—it is?"

Twibright is not responding because she is speedwalking and catching her breath. Then it hits her. The rock. She trips on the rock and falls on Apply's wheelchair. Thud!

"ya'allright sugarcube?"

The mildly chewed hat is now crushed slightly also.

"i feel like an angel apply jack" says rainbow.

"you are an angel sweetheart" says apply.

Rainbow dash cautiously took her first steps outside her room, into the lamplit hall, headfirst down the ramp, under the pipes and vents and wires interlaced with lattice windows. The sunlight was dim, the sunlight was blinding. When was the last time she had been under the sun? She didn't think about the answer to that until she felt the cool dirt and gravel under her hooves.

Twibright watched her wince and under the squint of her eyelids saw that her pupils were still dilated despite the change in light. Dash looked at the ground. The gravel seemed to rock gently under her, as if in a streambed. It was calming. Her eyelids came to a rest at half mast. Under the cover of eyelash shadows, her pupils made their way back up. To the wheels, to the birds fighting on the streets, to the cloudy sky and endless fog.

Instinctively, she fluttered her unbandaged wing.

"Careful now" said apply.

The air spun up, creating a sunbeam just large enough to refract off a single drop of water.

Nobody looked.

It was a beauty just for her.

She couldn't appreciate that...

She glanced up again.

"I think I'll push AJ" says rainbow dash.

"But i'm pushing AJ" says twibright.

"it's alright twi, she can push me too."

With her hooves on the handles, she felt so steady. Advance! They all moved forward into the quiet morning town.

"i just don't understand why they put the handles on the back of the wheelchair and not the front" says twibright. "The chair is clearly modelled off of the horse-drawn gig carts of the 19th century. Single seat, barebones construction, two bars, whew! It even has the tiny storage compartment. So why, tell me why, are the handles in the back? Do most ponies not keep harnesses nowadays?"

"well... It's in the back so you push it." says apply. "I have a harness, those things are mighty useful on farm work and other labor. But it's simple. It's for convenience. And it puts the patient first."

Rainbow stopped.

"you're telling me I could've been pushing this thing on all fours?"

"well, if it was a gig or a cart."

"You do realize that pulling in front is a symbol of servitude?" Asked twibright.

"whatthe hay" says apply. "Nah."

It was too late. Rainbow dash was already on all fours, squeezing herself under the seat and trying to tie herself to the chair somehow.

"watch. I'll make this thing go just as fast as Celestia's chariot."

She sped off, dust kicking, wheels rattling, gravel flying. Then stopped. The chair was two blocks behind her. Twibright pushes to catch up.

Then Rainbow tentatively takes back the handles.

"Faster than Luna's chariot too, right?" asks AJ.

"of course! Faster than anyone's!"

"push from behind."

"right! On it!"

Rainbow's hooves are shaking no matter how hard she grips the rubber. She speeds off on two feet.

Apply's hat flies off. Rainbow catches it in her teeth.

She suddenly feels happy again. The wind on her face, on Apply's face, them together. The crowd surges at the edge of the market district.

"Oh, great."

She swerves and continues pushing Apply jack in circles on the last open patch of road.

Fibrous clouds spooled around, strands cris-crossing at the edges of the one single open patch of sky. As far as the horizon, and assumedly past it. Only a tiny, rough-edged blue oval stood in contrast with the endless softly dimpled network of hydrous threads. Like a not-yet closed wound. Inexplicably, the sky behind it began to shine through. First dully and transluscently, in dim and diffuse patches. Then, in a noticeable white glow. Within seconds it faded and broke the clouds in flashlight beams. Even the "wound" was lost into the white. The speckled light seemingly just... Stopped there. It never grazed the ponies' backs, the roofs above them, the street below either. The world was simply floating in a soft and dreamlike grey. 

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" screamed dash, without even realizing she was screaming.

"It's ok, it's ok"

"IT'S NOT! GET OFF ME!"

Nurse Aurora dodged a stumbling buck from rainbow and hastily stepped back from her patient.

"it is ok, see look it's over already."

In her mouth she chomped down on a pair of tweezers holding a pathetically blood-and-pus-soaked ball of cotton.

Rainbow's frenzied eyes, still shaking with each breath, began to focus.

It kind of looked like a possum she saw trampled by cows once. It couldn't be.

"...what is that?"

"It's the dressings from your abscess."

(abscess...)

"I had to switch it out for clean ones."

Raimbow's mind flashed back to the orange nose and blurry edges.

(abscess...)

"I still have a few more I need to change. We can do it now or later. What would you like?"

"abscess" raimbow mumbled.

...

On the other side of the door, Twibright rolls Apply on her wheelchair. Apply, wearing a beautiful straw hat with a bandana fashioned into a ribbon.

"Could've sworn I heard screaming" says apply.

"I'll knock"

"Don't. We're bustin in."

Twibright knocks her greyish purple horn gently in a tap-tatatap-tap kind of way.

Apply sighs.

"Rainbow, is this a good time?"

"We're going into town square, then we're going to see the gardens," says Twibright, "Come with us."

Rainbow opens the door posthaste.

"If you heard screaming no you didn't" she smirks.

"We did hear screaming" says Twibright.

"I was worried for ya, but then it quieted down. What the hay happened?"

Rainbow hesitated.

"ah well i was just getting blood taken out of me and things, like a bawsssss! Here do you want to see me do more? I can do more. Nurse!"

Nurse Aurora waved.

Rainbow tried to cross her arms and fell over.

"Bloodlettin, huh? Like ye olde dark ages?"

"Not at all," says nurse, "i was just changing her wound dressings."

"my assesses or whatever"

"abscesses," corrected nurse, "they're these little pus filled pockets of infection inside of the flesh."

"I seen em drained yesterday. Ya'll still workin on em now?"

"They just need to be kept clean on the inside while they heal."

Rainbow soaked in the amazement of everyone. Except twibright because she knew this stuff already because she reads all the books.