Living in Equestria

"Tailcard!"

"Seriously?! You don't have any of those in your hoof?!" Scootaloo cried in disbelief.

I held my hands out in an innocent gesture. "Seriously. Would I lie?"

"Depends..." her eyes narrowed.

"On what?!"

"If you're tryin to get out of another tail kickin'!" she shot back, giggling a little as she did.

Tailcard. It was the game she had first taught me when I was recovering from the fight with Whipwind long ago. Only now, we were playing it in the Ponyville hospital and she was the one recovering. There was a bitter sweet irony about it all that made my heart swell with love for her that we had come this far around full circle to find ourselves doing the same thing we had been doing when our love was just beginning. We'd spent many hours playing this game together, and today we were playing it while waiting to find out if she can finally go home.

I still thought she was cheating a little.

Scoots had been in the hospital for many days now, probably two weeks if I had counted right, and she was going completely insane with cabin fever. We had already both gotten in trouble several times for doing timed sprints in her wheelchair down the hallway, me pushing her from behind as she cheered, hollering for me to go faster. But they'd taken the wheelchair away from us ever since the day we almost crashed into a nurse carrying a platter of medication.

The young pegasus was feeling much better now even though she still wasn't able to walk much because of her shoulder, but that had only turned out to only be severely sprained, nothing more. Her broken ribs were healing nicely however the wing would take a considerable time to recover after the near detachment it had suffered. It was the baby that had kept her here this long, Doctor Goodhoof was taking no chances and was hesitant to send her home too soon because of the unique nature of her pregnancy.

At least her room no longer looked the way it had when I first saw her in here so many days ago. Pinkie Pie, robbed of her party by the Cloudsdale officers, had moved a smaller version of the shower in to Scoots's hospital room as soon as she was feeling up to it, much to the frustration of the staff. Pinkie had promised she would keep it calm and quiet but to Pinkie... those two words had completely different meaning than what the nurses took them to be.

Several days later, it still looked like a carnival had vomited in here from all the balloons, streamers, cards and flowers that littered the place. I tried to keep the room somewhat clean, but between the clutter of the party decorations and Scootaloo's natural tenancies to be a walking tornado with a short attention span, it had proved to be a difficult task that I soon gave up.

We also had a few unexpected visitors since we got here, one of them was the large pegasus leader from the group we encountered in Sugarcube corner. He had appeared, quiet unexpectedly, without his armored suit in the doorway just after I had finished helping Scoots back from the bathroom only two days after the fight. By that time we had already learned that Celestia had stepped in personally and we wouldn't be in any trouble for what had happened. But that didn't calm my nerves any when I saw him in the doorway that afternoon.

"Hello." he'd said flatly in a deep voice, catching us both by surprise. I turned, confused as to who he was before I recognized him. Automatically I tensed, squaring off between the visitor and Scootaloo while glancing around for a possible weapon if I needed one.

He was big... obviously a pony who was very much in shape and I doubted I could take him now in a setting like this. The blood red color of his coat rippled with muscle unlike any I'd ever seen on a pony, even Big Mac. His bright yellow mane done in a tight braid down his neck gave him an imposing look that made me think of a samurai for some reason.

"Please..." he said, holding up a hoof and closing his eyes for a moment. "I'm not here officially... in fact there's nothing official about me anymore. I've been removed as an officer if it makes you feel any better." his head dropped a little as he shook it.

I relaxed a little, letting my hands unclench. "So... then why are you here?" I said uneasily.

The pegasus gave a sigh. "I needed to see if the young mare was alright. I... I haven't been able to sleep since I last saw her. I have a sister about her size, you know..." his head craned, trying to see around me to where Scootaloo lay quietly on the bed, still weak with pain.

His deep blue eyes focused on me again. "Listen, we didn't want any of this to happen. We all knew what we were doing was wrong, but Rattius Fink would have destroyed our lives and our families lives if we hadn't done his bidding. The story of Whipwind and his daughter is common knowledge up in Cloudsdale, and now that I can say it... we all know Whipwind deserved whatever he got from you folks."

He took a step forward into the room, not coming close but staying near the far wall, intentionally keeping his distance. There was something about the way he moved that was odd and I couldn't quite put my finger on it... something unnatural. When he could see Scootaloo who was struggling to keep her purple rimmed eyes open from the last round of medication, his head dropped in shame.

"Scootaloo, I hope you can forgive me. If it means anything to you, my career as an officer is over because of what happened. Please, you have to understand... my family was at stake. I am so sorry." he looked at the young mare on the bed with sad, remorseful eyes and I began to feel sorry for him. If what he said was true, and I had no reason to think it wasn't, then he had just been a pawn in Whipwind's game all along.

"What's your name?" I asked him.

"Offic-" he paused and swallowed hard. "Kaiden."

I looked down at Scootaloo who blinked slowly before turning her face to me. As so frequently happened between her and I these days, an unspoken conversation took place in our eyes that was felt more than seen or heard. When her small mouth turned up in a smile, I knew exactly how she felt.

"She understands, Kaiden..." I looked to him and then added, "... and so do I."

His broad, tense shoulders relaxed, softening his face at bit. "I'll go now. I don't want to bother you... thanks for your time."

He turned to move towards the door and then paused, looking back at us before turning to come near me.

"If you ever need somepony... you know, somepony who can take care of things? Find me in Cloudsdale. Your friend Rainbow Dash will where to look. I'll be starting a new career at the weather factory tomorrow" his face registered a look of disgust briefly.

With that, he offered his hoof up in a shake and I took it, meeting his steady, firm eyes before he left us. It wasn't until much later that night as Scootaloo slept and I read another Daring Do book on the flat and very uncomfortable couch that I realized what had been so odd about him.

The night nurse had just started her rounds and even though she was all the way at the end of the hall, her hoof steps echoed loudly against the hard floor like the heeled shoes of the girls at school in the empty, quiet halls between classes. Even my own shoes made loud noises in this place and I'd already woken Scootaloo up several times just by moving around the room no matter how delicately I stepped.

Kaiden's hooves had made no noise at all.

_________________________________________________________

Twilight Sparkle was going through a crisis. Not the type of crisis visible by any catastrophe going on around her but instead, this crisis was taking place in her mind. She walked down the streets of Ponyville desperately looking with concern and worry on her face that etched itself deeper every second.

Two really bad things had happened in the last few days. The first one was how she had froze when her authority had been challenged so openly at Sugarcube corner. She'd become completely paralyzed by indecision when the officers from Cloudsdale had refused to listen to her and as a result, Scootaloo had been seriously hurt.

She was supposed to be a princess who ruled a kingdom... and yet a simple act of defiance had driven her into an analytical spiral trying to decide the best course of action. When things had turned violent, she had simply shut down and didn't intervene. It was a problem of indecisiveness that had been getting steadily worse for her lately and now it had effected her ability to protect and care for her friends. It did nothing to help her already overwhelming self esteem issues she'd been having ever since Mason had shown up.

Her screw up that had brought him here had been a tipping point for her of some sorts. Something about her not being able to control her magic and effecting another life like that had really shaken her faith in her magical abilities. Even though Mason had told her not to worry about it, she couldn't help but take it out on herself. Twilight Sparkle harbored a thought that Mason secretly held a grudge against her and regardless if it was grounded in truth or not, it weighed on her mind. This latest breakdown at Sugarcube Corner only threw her further down this hole she'd been trying to climb out of.

Her other problem of course, was Spike.

The last few days he'd become a completely different dragon. He'd been brooding around the library with tired eyes and jumped at any little sound she made. Twilight had also caught him talking to himself, carrying on a one sided conversation that she could only hear half of. When she tried to ask him if something was wrong, he snapped at her almost violently, barring his little fangs and growling like a mad dog defending his food bowl. He'd not come with her to visit Scootaloo and Mason in the hospital or even attend Pinkie's second attempt at a shower for the young mare a while ago.

And finally, last night, Spike had suddenly flung himself out of bed just after she'd turned off the lights and growled that he needed some fresh air. He never came home.

Twilight had so far spent all day looking for him in Ponyville with no luck. She was beginning to think she had screwed up again by not listening to Discord in the first place and she cursed herself aloud, causing two young fillies walking nearby to look at her in shock.

"I'm so stupid sometimes, when am I going to learn!" she moaned.

This wasn't the first time she'd let her arrogance cause somepony else trouble and she made a promise to herself that when she found Spike, she would take this feracity thing seriously... she only hoped it wasn't too late.

Just when Twilight was ready to head back to the library, a faint, familiar smell caught in her snout. It was the same smell that had been wafting from Spike for the last cycle or so and her ears perked up hopefully. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on finding the source of it and followed the scent into an alleyway between two buildings nearby.

The warm sun was shaded here, creating deep pools of darkness while her eyes adjusted. Her purple hooves delicately picked their way through the piles of debris, following her snout deeper towards the dead end where the smell became strong, mixing with another odor that smelled like rotten eggs.

When she rounded a pile of moldering hay, her stomach flopped and she had to shut her eyes for a moment against what she saw. A large chicken lay dead, it's feathery body covered in the dried substance she recognized as the same stuff she'd been cleaning up around the library for weeks now. There was no doubt in her mind that Spike was responsible for this and she let out a groan.

There was also no doubt in her mind now that Discord had been right all along.

"Buck..." Twilight swore, for only the third time in her life.

_______________________________________________________

Scootaloo looked up over her cards at me, an evil glint surrounded my own reflection in her purple eyes .

"Hearts..."

"Ha! Tailcard, Puffball!" I cried in victory again, slamming my cards on the white sheet of the bed we sat on.

"No way!" Scootaloo flopped backwards onto the pillows behind her in dismay and then instantly regretted it. Her wing, bound and healing from it's injury, flared in protest at the sudden pressure. "OWW! Darn it!"

It made us both laugh heartily and that's how Twilight found us when she came storming into the room with her mane unkempt and a worried look on her face.

"Hey, Twilight!" I greeted her, wiping the tears of laughter from my eyes. "You alright? You look like you haven't slept or something."

"You guys haven't seen Spike, have you?" she said urgently.

"No..."

Her face fell along with her ears and tail. "Oh man... I gotta find him, Mason!" she shook her mane. "I think Discord might have been right all along! Dragon Feracity is real!"

"Feractiy?" came Doctor Goodhoof's voice as he strode in behind Twilight. "I never thought I'd hear that word when walking in here!"

Twilight whirled on him. "You know what it means!?" she asked, not bothering with a hello.

"Why of course, Twilight. My internship was in Dodge City, after all. The Badlands are just to the south and there was a special dragon wing of the hospital... quite remarkable, really." he said casually and then addressed Scootaloo.

"Well, your last tests have come back good, Scootaloo. I'm sending you home now. I'm sure the nurses will be thrilled!" he smiled.

"Seriously?" Scootaloo grinned and then looked at me. "I can get outta here?!"

"Sounds like it!" I put a hand on her head, scratching her orange ear.

"Wait!" Twilight reared up, grabbing the doctor by his lab coat with her purple hooves, her eyes burning with an almost maniacal need inches from his muzzle. "Tell me everything you know about Feracity... now!"

I got the feeling that something bad was about to happen.