Unit 0047

   Days have passed ever since that battle in Hollow Shades. Gemmed sighed and continued to stare at the Luna forsaken ceiling. The whole medical bay was too simple, too quiet, too...white. Everywhere she looked there was white. The walls, the beds, the blankets, even the pillows...Why did she have to be the first casualty? It was embarrassing and in the middle of a spell-bind too! She sighed again and turned to her side, facing the window. Gemmed could still recall that awful moment when she was struck down by some cheap dizziness spell.

   "Spell-bind them!" yelled Dreadfist.

   Gemmed's horn flared with a blue aura but was instantly struck by a stinging red blast that came from the left side of the woods. Her body felt weak and the red magic ran around her armor like static electricity. She dropped to ground and felt one of her comrades dragging her off to the cover of the trees. Her eyelids were heavy and her vision was also very blurry. Red bolts of magic were shooting everywhere in all directions and the Royal Guards were shielding behind bushes and trees. The only brave guards that would fight out in the open train tracks was the pegasus team. Corporal's Gauntlet and Blitz and Private Spike herself. Spears clashed against rusty swords and daggers. Glacial Spike was getting a few good hits against the hooded ponies but Vengeful Blitz was barraged under a sea of rocks. The hooded ones now brought sling-throwers that was bringing down all the guards. Arrows, magic, rocks. It was all too much for the poor private and so she slowly fell asleep under the stinging red magic...

   Gemmed woke up to find a vase of flowers sitting on top of her small cabinet. Oh, it was just a dream.

   "Aaah, you're awake," a familiar voice announced.

   Gemmed turned to her left and saw her bestest friend, Blade. He was laying down on the bed next to her and was reading a book.

   "I see you missed me, Blade. Was I gone too long or was I just busy fighting the battles while you were off prancing to Manehattan with that silly little smile on your face?"

   "Well, maybe if you wouldn't keep getting shot all the time, you could've seen me healing and bandaging your wounds while you were unconscious. Hmmm?"

   Gemmed smiled playfully and used her magic to take the book off his hooves.

   "Hey, I was just getting to the good part! She was about to wrestle against this huge crocodile!"

   She ignored his complaints and read the title of the book: Daring Do and The Amazonian Adventure. She stifled a laughter while Blade swiped it back.

   "Where is everypony by the way?" asked Gemmed, "I was told I'm in Manehattan."

   Blade looked up in thought, rubbing his chin.

   "After we escorted that prisoner to jail, Violet was requested to her new post at the train station, Vengeful is in the other medical room, recovering from his rock-filled headaches, and Flaming and Glacial is at the Twilight Tavern just 5 blocks away from here."

   She sighed and looked at her bandage-wrapped side. Gemmed sat up and slowly unwrapped the bandage. Blade cringed when he saw of what looked like a small burnt hole. His eyes were soon growing wide open when a red spark was dancing in the middle of the hole. Gemmed quickly wrapped the bandage around her stomach and back, diminishing the ball of static.

   "Nurse Redheart said the doctors were going to look into it tomorrow."

   "Ow! What was that for, Sweetcloud?" Unit asked as he rubbed the back of his head.

   "You were just trying to steal a lollipop from a colt," she whispered back, "You need to restrain yourself. Running around, stealing lollipops isn't the reason why I saved you back there in Manehattan."

   The two were sitting down on a bench, sightseeing the afternoon at the Pinky Grove Park. Little fillies kicked stones and red balls around while their parents were resting, or even sleeping, on the nearby benches, chatting away about their daily lives. A rainbow colored kite was flowing in the wind just above a tree that stood on a small hill, and under that tree sat a bench, and on that bench sat the Thief and Accomplice. Ah yes, it was a fine day as strollers passed by the two or even stopped to say 'Good Afternoon.'

   "Then what do you suggest I should do? I have plenty of days to kill until Loki gets back here," Unit whined.

   "Well, I think this would be a great time to check out that bookstore over there across the street."

   He sighed and walked behind Sweetcloud through the field. The children were playing a game of kickball and a ball unfortunately hit Unit on the side of the head. Noticing his temperature rising, Sweetcloud quickly kicked the ball back to the grass and led Unit inside the quiet building. She heard him mumble something about 'bad aim' and shrugged it off. They both awkwardly stood at the entrance for awhile, looking around until Sweetcloud saw something out of the corner of her eye.

   "There's the latest book of the series!" gasped the bookworm.

   She pulled Unit towards to the racks and he found himself staring at a familiar pegasus.

   "Daring Do? Despite the fact that she's trying to arrest us and all, isn't her books a bit...childish?"

   The 1st book of the series was shoved into Unit's face.

   "You can't judge a book by it's cover." Sweetcloud replied in a sing-songy voice.

   "But aren't those what book covers are for? To judge?"

   "Unit, you won't know if you'll like or not unless you try."

   He wrinkled his nose at the most common, given answer.

   "So how did you come to read these books?"

   "They looked...interesting. Point taken."