A Washed Up Reporter's Chance At Redemption

I roamed the halls inside the hospital seeing only nurses and doctors pass by me as they took their patients to rooms.  “Uh, excuse me, miss?” I said to a nurse as she trotted by. “Do you know where room eleven is?”

She turned around and smiled. “You take three turns to your left and just keep walking until you stop at a brown door. I heard Celestia’s keeping something in there. Any idea what it is?”

I shook my head. “I can’t reveal that kind of information, ma’am.” I  pushed her aside and began to trot towards my destination. “Have a good day.”

I coulda sworn I heard her mumble something negative about me. I followed the instructions the mare gave me and kept trotting forward until the brown door came into view.

Questions swarmed in my head as I stopped in front of the room.  What was behind that door? Why was it a secret? Why did Celestia pick a hospital instead of her castle? My thoughts were interrupted as the door opened. A royal guard with a scar on his face stepped out of the room, and closed the door without noticing me standing behind him.

“What was you doing in there?” I asked.

He jumped at sound of my voice. He caught his breath and turned around. “Celestia, you scared me!” He shouted, putting a hoof to his beating heart. “Did the captain send you?”

“Yeah, he did. He also wanted me to make sure none of the guards are doing anything suspicious.” I said, crossing my forelegs. “Now I'ma ask you again. What was you doing in there?”

“I said I’m not doing nothing, all right?” He shoved past, leaving me alone in the hall with my thoughts. He was acting way too suspicious for somepony ‘not doing anything’. I’d also spotted a needle in his left hoof as he was walking away. I wanted to talk to him, but decided that it wasn’t worth it.

I turned back to the door and stared closely at it. Wondering what lay behind it and why was it so secretive. Some kind of weapon?  Beast?  Magical artifact? Never mind that. I needed to focus. I reached my hoof around the knob, and twisted it until it slowly opened into a dim room.

I trotted inside and closed the door behind. I looked for a light switch but found none. I squinted my eyes, something was laying on that hospital bed. I trotted towards the bed, but something knocked me down on the floor.  I landed on my face. “Celestia Dammit!”

I saw something roll under the bed when I fell.  I reached underneath and pulled out a half empty bottle of Anesthetic. I cursed. “That idiot!” That guard was giving whatever was under that thing laying in the bed too much medicine. It  also would explain the needle in his left hoof and his weird behavior.

The light flipped on, revealing a tall body. Its  breathing was slow and dull. Slowly the creature faded away as I looked at it. I turned around and saw three guards, and the captain standing by the door. I looked at them then at the item held in my hoof. “This isn’t what it looks like!”

“Of course it is, Printer.” He stepped closer to me, standing only a couple feet away from me and removed the helmet off my head. “I knew it was you from the moment I saw you, I just didn’t want to believe it.  You thought everypony would forget the washed up reporter that had it all. Well you’re sadly mistaken.”  He waved a hoof, motioning for the guards to take me away.The guards trotted towards me, pointing their swords at me. One guard stepped behind me, and placed hoof cuffs on my hoof, and roughly pushed me towards the captain.

“Printer, for the murder of an unknown creature, you are hereby sentenced to a life in prison. Do you have anything you like to say for yourself?”

I looked down, and kept silent.

The door slammed open. The sun blinded my eyes, and a bunch of ponies were standing outside the shield, watching me as the guards took me away, silently asking what I’d done. The colt who helped me, my only friend, looked at me with tears streaming down his cheeks. He ran past the guards, and hugged my leg.

“I’m so sorry! I got you caught! It’s all my fault!” He shouted, sobbing into my coat.”Stupid! Stupid!”

I smiled, I would hug the kid, but my hooves were cuffed. “It’s okay kid. You’re plan was brilliant, it’s just this old timer wasn’t fit for the job. Don’t blame yourself for my failure. You’re father would have been proud of you.” I said as a tear trailed down my cheek. “You’re like the son I never had.”

“R-Really?”

I nodded.

He turned to the guard who was holding me captive.“Please don’t take him away! Please he’s the only friend I have!” He begged for the guards to release me from the cuffs. “Please let him go!”

“Can someone get this kid out of here!” The captain shouted as he was following behind me . “We don’t have time for this! Somepony get him out of here!”

 A guard that came from within the group dragged him away from the scene, trotting towards the hospital. “Printer is innocent! He’s done nothing wrong!”

I watched as the kid was dragged away, disappearing out of my sight. I sat down on the hospital steps, but I could still hear him begging for me to be released.

The guard who fed the creature the medicine stopped the guards and stepped in front of me. He leaned closer to my ear, whispering, “ Now Equestria isn’t in danger, and it’s all thanks to you.”

I growled. “Why? Why would you do that!?” I shouted, struggling to get the cuffs off so I could beat him to a bloody pulp, but received a wicked blow in the back of my head, making my vision blurry.

“Celestia was helping the creature get better without knowing what it was capable of doing once it regained its health. So I saved Equestria by killing it. I was going to just kill it and didn’t care if I got caught later on ‘cause I’ll do anything to protect my home, unlike you and the rest of them.” He chuckled. “But it looks like you took the fall for me.”

I gritted my teeth.“You son of bitch! I’ll kill you!”

“Look on the bright side, you’ll make a good comeback after years in retirement.” He stepped back, and patted my head. “You should be thanking me.”

I spat in his face. “You can’t do this to me! He killed the creature not me! I didn’t do it! I DIDN’T DO IT!” I begged,  hoping somepony would believe me. But everypony stood where they were and watched me get placed inside the carriage.

I knew where they were going and I knew how my life was going to be for now on. I couldn’t help but to chuckle as I thought about what the headlines in newspapers would read tomorrow.

Legendary Printer gets put into the life in prison for the acts of murder.

A couple of weeks later...

Two stallions stood inside a room filled with bodies lying on metal tables. A light bulb swung back and forth, making it hard to see. One guard held a clipboard in his hooves, writing down names, while the other one was eating a hay chilly dog.

Soap pulled out a metal table that was labeled: Unknown,revealing a tall body under a white sheet.”What we got here?” he said, looking down at the clipboard, and reading something that was written down on there. “A hairless creature, height eight seven, it appears be in it’s early age. Died of getting too much medicine all at once.”

Cartwheels took another bite of his haydog, moaning with each bite. “Dude, you gotta try this! It’s so bucking good!”

Soap shook his head. “I don’t eat around dead bodies.” He simply said, and pulled down the white sheets. The creature skin was pale, it had black hair, and it’s eyes were closed. “Damn, this thing is ugly.”

Cart laughed. “So this is what Celestia’s been hiding. After Printer murdered this thing, her secret was revealed to the public making everypony panic for nothing.”

Soap sighed, shaking his head. “Everypony just panics over everything now. Idiots.” He turned around to a small table filled with scalpels and other surgery tools. “Help me with this, will ya!”

He stuffed the remains of the haydog in his mouth and gulped it down before asking, "Why can't YOU do it?"

“Because it’s a two-stallion job. Now get your fat ass here and help me!”

Cartwheels groaned and trotted over to help his friend. Silence filled with room as they continued with their work, the light bulb blinking off and on as it swung around. They didn’t even notice the sheets  moving where the creature’s mouth was.