Dangerous Dog and Pony Show

Hours had passed since Spike had seen Rarity enter the hospital, and the warm afternoon was started turning into a cooler evening. Ponies had been watching the dragon for hours, not sure what to make of their new town resident - he seemed harmless enough as he lay outside the hospital.

But Dragons were dangerous and large creatures to be feared, despite the non aggression pact between the dragon and pony cultures. As long as the ponies didn't enter the Dragon kingdom, they were safe from being eaten, and it was a rule of the pact that only the Princesses were allowed to interact with any dragon. Of course Spike had always been an exception to this, which was easy for the average pony to understand when he was a baby dragon. But now he was larger than anypony else, they wondered what that now meant for him, and them.

Two of the cutie mark crusaders approached Spike – the third had long gone inside to be next to her sister, and the other two had been told they had to wait outside. They slowly moved towards their old friend, wondering if he would recognise them. The fear of the large creature, and everypony elses reactions, was being negated by the young fillies natural curiosity. The dragon saw his two friends approaching and as soon as they were in range he reached out, picked them up in a claw and deposited them gently on his head.

The two fillies were at first shocked, but then realised that was all he could to be nice to them. Spike may now be larger than anything else they had ever seen, but to them he was still their friend. And besides, perhaps they would get their cutie marks in something relating to dragons Cutie Mark Crusader Dragon Tamers, YAY!. They then lay down either side of his head, waiting for news from the hospital and gently nodded off to sleep.

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The pegasus sent to Canterlot returned that evening with well wishes from the Princesses, who were relieved that Rarity had been recovered relatively safely. Luna had entered Rarity dream, only to find the unicorn was asleep within her dream. Having then gone inside the dream within a dream, she found a filly Rarity simply sat in a field playing with a foal which the Princess presumed was Sweetie Belle.

Twilight mused on this for a moment and flicked through one of her books “That is a good sign I think. Sounds like Rarity has regressed in her mind, which should help protect her magical functions. And the fact that she is with family indicates that she is in a happy place. That in itself won’t actually help…but it’s nice to know” she comforted Rarity's friends and family, as well as herself.

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As night started to fall, Twilight came out of the hospital alongside her friends and Sweetie Belle. Noticing the two napping fillies on her assistants head, she gently levitated them down onto Applejack and Rainbows back, without them being woken. Spike noticed this, and slowly rose back to his feet stretching out his limbs, causing massive popping sounds that made everypony in a mile radius jump. He then looked down to his adoptive mother with an expression of concern.

“Spike, Rarity is going to be physical fine. She’s going to be kept in for a while whilst the hospital monitor her. She had to have a number of IV’s to help rehydrate, shes had to have some stitches and her wounds have been cleaned – she should recover fully and probably won't even have any scars”

The dragon looked at Twilight with a little glint in his eyes, having read between the lines at what she didn't say, rather than what she had. Having grown up around Twilight, and other powerful unicorns, he was more than aware of the dangers of unicorn magic complications. He gently pointed at Sweetie Belle’s horn.

“I know what you are thinking” Twilight gulped “Well, she’s still asleep so we don’t know what her mental state is like. But I’m not going to lie to you, her magic…is currently empty.”

Spikes eyes narrowed a little aggressively and his skin began to grow a little darker. Everypony noticed this, and they all started forming their own escape plans should things turn nasty – earth ponies noting the quickest escape route, Rainbow ready to fly away and pick up Scootaloo as she did, and Twilight ready to cast a shield to protect the hospital.

Twilight continued “Look, as soon as she wakes I can start recovering it with her. I don’t see why she won’t eventually have a full recovery. The fact she is sleeping is a good thing, and we’ll keep her sedated tonight”

Spike looked down at Sweetie Belle, who was close to tears, and his eyes softened a little. He raised his snout in the air and puffed out a bit of smoke. He then picked it out of the air, and nudged it down to the unicorn. When sweetie took it in her hooves, everypony noticed it was a cloud shaped like her sister, complete with the proud pony's unique mane and tail styling.

“Wow, that’s beautiful Spike” Applejack gasped, as Sweetie started hugging the soft toy made out of dragon smoke. “But how on Equestria did you manage to do that?” the earth pony question.

“Its like some cloud magic” Rainbow gasped "Awesome!"

“Yeah, Spike will now have all sorts of abilities now he’s grown” Twilight answered her friends “Normally it would be defence and offensive magic only, but I suppose our little Spike would have a different outlook on life wouldn't he?”

The ponies looked up at their dragon friend, and despite still towering above them, suddenly he still seemed like their old baby dragon friend, eager to please and comfort others. “Thanks Spike” Sweetie Belle cried, as Fluttershy started leading her back to her cottage for the night.

Spike looked at Twilight, who had a little tear in her eye “Well number one assistant, I guess it’s time to sleep. You can either stay here if you want, huh lets face it you can do whatever you want really” the unicorn laughed “but I think some of the other hospital patients are feeling a tad nervous with you outside. So perhaps it would be better if you slept outside the library?”

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Celestia’s sun crept into Twilight’s bedroom at Golden Oaks Library, causing the unicorn to gently stir. She looked down instinctively at her Spikes basket, expecting her baby to be curled up asleep, but of course it was empty. Remembering what happened the previous day, she opened the curtains and squinted into the new morning's daylight.

Spike looked the same as he had the evening before, and also looked exactly the same as he always had every morning when he was asleep, except for instead of being curled up in the basket next to the fillies bed, he was curled up around the tree that they called home. Twilight took a second to saviour and capture the image in her head, but then started getting ready to go to the hospital – Rarity needed her.

Once she had quickly washed and brushed her mane, she gently woke Spike who was blocking the front door. The dragon slowly rose and smiled a little at his mother, and for a second didn't look like a massive powerful dragon. However, the smile soon faded as the memories of the day before came flooding back.

Twilight trotted towards the hospital, with Spike flying overhead – he was too large to walk through the town but Twilight was certain he had slightly shrunk a little from the day before. When they got to the hospital, Twilight went inside leaving Spike to lay down outside and wait.

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Twilight made her way into the ICU, where Rarity was the only patient. Fluttershy was already there with Sweetie Belle, watching the sleeping unicorn. She was still under sedation, had a couple of IV’s still providing fluids and had numerous machines monitoring her vital signs.

The nurses, led by Nurse Redheart, approached Twilight as she entered but Twilight just looked at the machines and the charts. The nurses just backed off, leaving the friends alone. Fluttershy knew more about medicine than any of the nurses, almost as much as the doctors, and nopony in the mostly earth pony village knew magic like Twilight. The pair of them didn’t need anypony to tell them what’s going on.

“I think it’s time to stop the sedation” Fluttershy turned to Twilight

Twilight cast an aura over the unicorn “I think you're right – BP’s, Sats and Bloodworks are all good, and her body is well on the way to recovery.”

They got the nurses attention, and asked them to stop the sedation. Nurse Redheart went to fetch the doctor, who confirmed the order. He knew that the sedation was only needed for magical purposes, and he was out of his league by a large magnitude here. The drip was stopped, and they expected Rarity to awake within a few hours.

The other elements of harmony and Rarity's parents shortly arrived and everypony waited for their friend, sister or daughter to awaken…