Kain and Celestia walked Will to the Canterlot Hospital, as that was as fast as Kain would go. They forced their way into the emergency room, and set the unconscious Will on an exam table.

Several doctors rushed into the room, all of them spouting different things all at once.

“I have two warnings for you,” Kain announced to them all. “First, I’m not leaving, no matter what,” he idly brought his hand up to the hilt of his sword for emphasis before lowering it and continuing. “Second, you’re wasting your time using magic on him,”

“We can’t treat him without magic!” one of them protested, a doctor new to his job.

“I’m telling you, magic of any kind is not going to work,” Kain sighed. “Look at his right arm. Do you see the glowing red thing?” He received several confused nods. “That is a powerful magic seal. It’ll… absorb any magic used on him…”

“Well… what do you suggest, Princess?” one of them asked.

She had stood to the side so far remaining quiet. “I suggest that Kain explains exactly what needs to be set up and why,”

Kain slowly shook his head. “I’m sorry, Princess, but I’m not going to tell them how to set up an unnecessary safety net,”

“An unnecessary safety net that may just save his life,” She argued.

“If Will found out, he’d kill us all, especially if something tragic happens. And besides, I’ve known Will for over twenty years, he’s not going to die from this.”

“Tell it to them as a last resort, just incase anything happens,”

“Fine,” Kain muttered, turning to the assembled doctors. “But you’re only allowed to execute this plan if I give the signal, got it?” He got a few skeptic and begrudging nods. “First off… Will is a Mage, a human who can use magic. And this seal is constantly eating away at his magic. A mage cannot survive extended periods of time without magic. The same can be applied to an Anthro. The safety net we mentioned is having another magic user literally pump magic into his body. The thing about that… is that the seal will lash out at the new magic and eat away at that… eating away at the donor, which could potentially kill them if it eats too much too quickly,”

“By the way you’re phrasing it, you make it sound like Will has no chance of survival,” One Nurse Redheart noted.

“Will is gonna be fine, he just needs bed rest and to not be exposed to magic. The seal will naturally weaken how much it eats away until it is back to its normal level. Will’s body naturally creates stored magic energy at a slow enough rate that the seal won’t normally notice. The only way he would die is if his seal ate more than his body could create.” Kain paused. “We should move him to a room and get him out of the emergency room. He needs rest.”

“If he needed rest so much, you should’ve gotten here quicker,” one of the doctors spat.

“…You want to run that by me again?” Kain asked, his voice deceptively calm, his hand resting on his sword hilt, making all the doctors very nervous. “I’m been around Will like this before, and he himself told me why one must move slowly when drained of magic. When someone is in such a state, their brain more acutely registers the pain nerves when they fire off, meaning the added jostling and roughness of running really fast just ends up aggravating his wounds. I knew exactly what I was doing.”

“All right, then,” one doctor in the back rolled up his sleeves and stepped forward. “I’ll have to ask you to step back, sir.”

“Why?” Kain asked. “I thought I was clear…”

“Yes, yes, you were quite clear that we should not use magic on him, we got that. But we are doctors, sir. Magic is just one way of healing. If we can’t use magic, we use machines. A patient was brought before us, and he isn’t leaving the emergency room until we know he’s stable. A fact some of our younger member have apparently forgotten about.”

“But-,”

“I trust the readings of the machines, sir, not some stranger’s testimony,” he replied pointedly.

“Fine, do your damn job. I’m still gonna be watching you,” Kain unstrapped Will’s gun and sword, and held them off to the side for safekeeping.

The doctors set about readying the different machines and they quickly began performing tests, after Will was changed into a hospital gown, of course.

One hour later, Will was carted into a plain, white-walled room and hooked up to a heartrate monitor, which was a little white block that clamped over his index finger connected to a screen. An IV was pumping fluids into his left arm as he slept. Kain sprawled on one end of the couch that was in front of the window in the room. Celestia sat gracefully on the other, folding one leg over the other as she breathed calmly.

“How many visitors should we be expecting?” Kain asked in a bored tone after a while.

“A horde,” Celestia giggled.

“How are we gonna keep them from casting magic in here?”

“There is a safety net in place: guards are at every entrance and my sister and I will be guarding the door to this very room. We’ll be switching off and on every so often.”

“Oh, goody,” Kain muttered. “How much do you know about his past?”

“I know most of his past,” Celestia replied. “I even know about the stunt you pulled as a vigilante helping him.”

“That wasn’t exactly princely, but whatever. It was fun when it happened.” He paused for a while. “Is it true that the prison food here is tasty?”

“Why? Want to be thrown in there?” she questioned with a snicker.

“Not really. Did the guards not inform you that we brought three prisoners with us?”

“No they did not,” she frowned.

“Well, we did and they were asking about it.” Kain replied. “One of his father’s underlings,”

“Is that…?”

“No. Will used his magic for something else,”

“Like what?”

‘Nah, I’ll wait until he reawakens to share that little tidbit,” he smirked, earning him a bop on the side of his head.

They then watched in silence as many people, humans and anthros alike, filtered into the room. Some stood quietly, some knelt down and prayed, some wept, and some left Will bouquets of varyingly colored flowers, resting them on the bed next to him.

Most of them filtered back out after a few minutes, but a rare few of them brought in chairs and sat on the other side from Kain and Celestia.

Ignoring the stream of ever-changing faces, Kain focused on the three, seated women on the other side of Will’s bed, narrowing his eyes and receiving the same reaction from the woman on his right.

“Who are they?” he wondered quietly, so only Celestia could hear.

“Fluttershy, Sunset Shimmer, and Rainbow Dash,” she replied, surreptitiously indicating each one as she listed their names. “Three of his tenants and three of your soon to be housemates,”

“Curious,” he muttered, rubbing at both his eyes with one hand. “Damn, I’m tired,” he gave out a weak chuckle. “I’m gonna close my eyes for a… while…” Having stayed up for over forty-eight hours straight and having lost the adrenaline of getting Will to safety, it did not take Kain long to lose himself to sleep.

********

A silence surrounded the three friends on the other side of Will’s bed. They gazed back at Will’s unconscious form, emotions roiling inside.

Sunset was deceptively calm as she sat with her hands in her lap, idly watching as the passers by slowly buried Will with flowers. So many were brought that the nurses had to come in and clear them off the bed.

Rainbow wore a mask across her features as she scrutinized the other visitors, glaring at any who she felt deserved it… which was mostly everyone.

Fluttershy’s worry was written all over her posture, from the way she was wringing her hands together to the way she was fidgeting to the way her legs crossed over each other at the ankles.

All three of them looked on in abject shock, however, when one Prince Blueblood begrudgingly strolled in. He stood at the end of the bed, glaring down at Will, though he did not make a scene, thankfully. He did not even speak, showing he might have a functional brain after all. Though Blueblood was peeved, being dragged out to the hospital to meet a commoner, a nobody to the Prince. He would’ve voiced his indignation were it not for Celestia scrutinizing him to his left, her gaze always calculating, and Luna’s glare boring into his right temple as she watched him from the doorway.

Blueblood stayed for just under a minute before he turned on a dime and beat a hasty retreat out of the room.

A collective sigh of relief passed by everyone as the Prince left. He seemed to breed stress with every step he took.

“Do…” Sunset started, pausing as she formulated her thoughts. “Do you think we should go gather the others?”

“I’m not leaving,” Rainbow muttered flatly, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Umm… I told Rarity about it before I left class to come here. I don’t know where she went. Should we go searching for them? I don’t want to leave… but…”

“There’s no need, darling,” A voice from the doorway drew their attention. There standing was Rarity, with a slight grimace on her face as she glared at something out in the hall, before turning back to her friends and softening her gaze, followed by a very subdued Pinkie, who could only manage the faintest of smiles. Her hair had lost some of its curliness, but it wasn’t completely straight.

“Rarity, Pinkie,” Fluttershy sighed happily upon seeing her friends. The two new arrivals drew up chairs and Rarity smiled.

“I texted the others the news. I got no response from you two,” She glanced at Rainbow and Sunset. “But that makes sense now, Pinkie found me and we talked a little before coming here, Applejack said she’d be over after work, but that she’d have to work late into the night, and I got no response from Twilight. I don’t even think she heard her phone at all.”

They heard giggling and twisted around to see Celestia at the doorway, trying and failing horribly at hiding her smile. “She does have a one track mind sometimes when it comes to studying or conducting research. I’ll be sure to get her before the night is over,” With that she slipped out of the doorway and replaced her sister as the door guard.

Luna, for her part was perturbed. She didn’t know whether to do her job or not. She leaned against the wall facing the end of Will’s bed and gazed down at his unconscious form with furrowed brows. Her ethereal hair flowed down her shoulder to one side, highlighting her dark blue skin perfectly.

Should I try to dream dive into his mind? She pondered, crossing her arms. Will that affect his seal in any way, even over a large distance?

She, along with most of the others in the room, were snapped out of their thoughts by a loud caw coming from the bird that had been resting on Kain’s shoulder since he’d arrived, the sleeping man himself having barely acknowledged its presence, other than a pat on the head or a stroke of her feathers from time to time.

Fluttershy made her way over to the bird after a quiet, “Oh, my.” She was cautious and fearful that the man would start moving, but she crept closer and conversed with the bird.

“How are you, little one?” she asked softly.

“Caw! Caw!” Raven cried, extending her wings and flapping them for effect. “My name is Raven! I’m really hungry!”

“Oh my, you poor thing!” Fluttershy scooped Raven into her arms. “Let’s go get you some food, Miss Raven,”

She cawed in approval as Fluttershy carried her outside to find some food for her.

The rest of the day passed by uneventfully. Fluttershy returned with a satisfied Raven about an hour later, Applejack joined them close to dusk, and the two Royal Sisters stepped out of the building to lower the sun and raise the moon, respectively. Luna returned to the door quickly as her sister went off to find her protégé.

When everything was said and done, The Mane Seven sat around, having rearranged their chairs into a circle, and were chatting amongst themselves quietly. Celestia and Luna were holding their own private conversation off to the side, and Kain was still slumped on his spot on the couch, breathing evenly.

Raven wriggled her way out of Fluttershy’s lap and glided over to perch on Kain’s shoulder.

“Oh, Miss Raven, let’s not disturb the sleeping person,” Fluttershy murmured, climbing to her feet.

Raven poked at his hair with her beak, searching for anything and everything to eat.

“Yeah, yeah, I heard him, I’m up, I’m up,” Kain muttered, waving his armored hand gently where Raven was, pushing her away from his head. He raised his head and gave her a hard look. He stood and stretched his arms into the air, forming a haphazard Y with his body. He clanked over to the side of the bed, painfully aware of the suspicious glares he was receiving, and gazed down at Will’s body. Will’s head had been turned towards him the entire time and his arms imperceptibly twitched each time the heart monitor beeped. His right eye was cracked open and had been for a while. His mouth barely moved, sending Kain a silent plea.

Kain reached down, ignoring the cries of alarm coming from in front of him and he removed the heart monitor from Will’s finger, turning off the console completely before it could alarm as well.

“What are you doing?!” several members of the Mane Seven cried.

Kain knelt next to Will, ignoring the others and asked as simple question, “Better, Will?”

Will slowly raised his left hand to his head, sighing, “Sweet Celestia, that incessant beeping is finally gone,” he breathed, his voice a whisper.

The room was blanketed by silence, as everyone other than Kain realized that Will was awake and very much alive.

A collective whoop flew through the room as the Mane Seven scrambled to get to Will. Kain stepped back out of the way and looked on at all the joyous crying faces.

“Girls, please, I can’t breathe,” Will wheezed, getting sheepishly released from several death grip hugs.

He pushed himself up into a sitting position, propping pillows up behind him with a little help from Luna. “Arigatoo (Thank you,)” he murmured before raising his right arm so he could study it more closely.

He breathed in and out deeply several times, watching the red glow as it dimmed until the pattern no longer glowed at all. Emblazoned on his arm was an intricate red double helix pattern that wrapped around his arm all the way from his wrist to his elbow and to his shoulder.

He smiled softly as he felt a gentle breeze blowing through the room brush across his face and arms, his legs could not feel the touch of the wind as they were covered by a white hospital blanket. Twilight gave a quizzical look, as both the door and window were shut tight.

Will turned and gave Kain a questioning look. Kain pointed a thumb over his left shoulder towards the corner of the room, next to the couch. “All your equipment’s right over there. I made sure to grab it for safekeeping,” he murmured, gaining a sigh of relief.

Will then turned to the others in the room. “Sorry to make you worry-!” He was quickly drowned in a group hug before he could even finish his sentence. “Uh, girls? I know I’ve been mysterious…” He let out an involuntary big yawn. “Sorry about that,”

“You need to rest,” several people spoke at once, pushing him back into the bed.

“Why not wait for tomorrow for your explanation?” Celestia suggested.

“Wait, what day is it tomorrow?” He asked quickly, pushing himself up onto an elbow.

“Saturday,” Twilight answered.

“I’ll have to push it back to Sunday,” Will replied shaking his head. “I have to pay the bills and inspect for any repairs tomorrow,”

“We can help with that, you know,” Fluttershy spoke up. “You shouldn’t be working in your condition,”

Will slowly shook his head. “You seven have been planning a trip to the beach for weeks now, heck, it’s nearly been a month. Go and have your fun in the sand. And besides… I’ll have a lot of help,” he nodded to his right, to Kain.

“We’ll help, too,” Luna announced.

“I can’t ask you to do that!” Will sputtered.

“It’s a good thing you didn’t ask then,” Celestia replied smoothly with a mischievous grin.

Will sighed, lowering his head and body back to the bed. “Hai, Hai, (Yes, Yes,) I give,” he conceded, closing his eyes.

********

“Who are you?” Twilight’s voice came into Will’s ear canal after a while of silence and he cracked his eyes open to watch. She was addressing Kain, who Will just noticed hadn’t removed his armor since he arrived. They were standing on opposite sides of his bed. He could observe each of them with sidelong glances to each side.

“Who, me?” Kain asked innocently, receiving a nod from Twilight as her friends joined her.

“Yes, you,” she replied.

“Well… let me ask you this: Who do you think I am?”

“You’re either a friendly traveler who saved him from who-knows-where… or you’re his Saddle Arabian friend Kain,” Twilight answered after deliberating with her friends.

Kain’s face remained a mask as he turned towards Will. “Really?” He sounded genuinely confused. “You didn’t tell them?”

Will wisely chose not to speak and closed his eyes.

“Let him sleep. We’re the one’s talking here,” Rainbow snapped.

Kain sighed with a palm against his forehead, turned and paced three steps away before stopping, making sure they got a good look at the sheath on his back. He lowered his hand and returned to his position next to the bed. “I wasn’t planning on hiding this,” He murmured to Will, who was still cheekily appearing asleep. “I just didn’t want a big deal made out of it,” Kain then addressed the Mane Seven. “I am Prince Kain… of Saddle Arabia. You may all call me Kain,” he paused. “And when your minds reboot, you can all introduce yourselves.”

Most of them were standing slack-jawed at the news, but Rarity was lost in thought. “If you’re a Prince, darling, then what would that make Will?”

Kain stopped, having not expected that question. He thought back, “Uh, that would make him a Lord, like the Lord of a Noble House… I wouldn’t know where to start, trying to explain that. All will be explained on Sunday it seems.”

“So Will is Saddle Arabian?” Rarity clarified.

“Yes and no,” Kain answered after more internal digging, a hand resting on his chin. “Yes, he lived in Saddle Arabia long enough to be considered a citizen from there, but his family is originally from Neighpon. Again, all will be explained on Sunday, and we all better get some rest. Good night, everyone,”

“Good night, Prince Kain,” they all replied.

“Just Kain is fine,” he called back as he reached the couch. A hostel, huh? Quite the lively and fun life you’ve built here, Will. He slowly drifted off to sleep. I’m looking forward to more…

Author's Note

Constructive Criticism is always Appreciated.

And thank you to those who commented before. I'm trying to improve my writing skills by writing fanfiction, and all your comments help, even if it doesn't seem that way.