Life is Beautiful

Twilight slowly opened her eyes with a groan, not recognizing where she was for a minute. Rolling slowly over in a bed, she saw all sorts of medical equipment. As she ended up on her side, she suddenly ended up face to face with a gryphon beak.

Twilight stared in raw fear for a moment as the eyes above that beak slowly opened, giving a little squeak as it yawned, almost cutely. Twilight however panicked, letting out a shrill scream of fear, which was quickly returned as the gryphon infront of her woke up. Twilight’s power wrapped around the gryphon in her fear, suddenly throwing him away and into a wall hard as Twilight tried to scramble to her feet, only to find bands of fabric over her chest and haunches holding her down.

The small gryphon smashed into a wall with a shrill cry of pain, crumpling down to the floor, knocked absolutely silly. The sound of screaming had alerted the nurses on duty, and there was a commotion outside the door, hooves thundering down the hallway as the door suddenly burst open, two nurses and two orderlies quickly entering the room.

Twilight was still panicking, screeching in feat as she fought to get out of her restraints, her magic flaring and bursting at it. The two nurses quickly moved in on Twilight from either side, one of them speaking up over the shrieking, trying to calm the freaking lavender mare down, “Twilight! Twilight Sparkle! Calm down! You are safe, it was just a nightmare! Calm down, you are in the hospital.”

Twilight shrieked, thrashing against the two nurse mares as she tried to get up, “Let me up! Let me up! There’s a gryphon! Its gonna kill me! Don’t let it kill me!”

“There are no gryphons, you are suffering from withdrawal from Moon Sugar, please, calm down! Nothing is going to hurt you here.”

“Then what is that?!” Twilight asked, pointing a hoof as she squirmed, trying to hide between the two nurses.

“There’s nothing there, it’s just a…” The nurse paused, blinking as she looked at the gryphon who was holding his paws to his head, crying and shaking. “It’s a gryphon,” she deadpanned, a bit startled.

“See! I told you! I wasn’t imagining things! Get it away!” Twilight screeched.

One of the nurses patted the mare’s shoulder, “It’s just a baby one, please, calm down, it won’t hurt you, it looks hurt.” She motioned the orderlies over to the panicking Twilight, who started to calm down slowly, though she still breathed heavily. Once the orderlies were besides Twilight, gently holding her down, and trying to keep her from hurting herself. “Are you hurt little one? What are you doing here?”

Gerald let out a pained squawk, holding his head as he looked up through teary eyes at the nurse, “My wing hurts, and my head hurts, and my back hurts. I had trouble sleeping, I have been visiting Miss Sparkle at night to read to her. I didn’t mean to scare her, I’m sorry,” his beak quivering as he started to cry.

Twilight was calming down, breathing heavily still, but a glow surrounded her horn, and she undid the straps holding her down now that she was thinking more clearly, slowly sitting up. She noticed something on the bed, her magic picking it up as she looked at it with a confused frown.

“Alright little one, why don’t we take you to another room an get you checked out,” the nurse said softly, “can you walk?”

Gerald slowly wobbled to his feet, his wings stretching out to help him keep balance, and he nodded his head, though that was a bad idea, and he fell over with a squeak, quickly righting himself again, “I think so.” He took a few unsteady steps forwards, before looking to the bed, “I’m real sorry Miss Sparkle, I didn’t mean to scare you or upset you, and I am real sorry for what my dad did to you… you are nice and you have nice friends.”

Twilight stared in shock at the little gryphon, trying to shift a bit on the bed, “W-w-w-wait!” she said, struggling to move, but she had a hard time even without the straps holding her, panting a bit in frustration. She opted instead to bring the book that she had been holding around, “You were… were reading this to me?”

Gerald looked up, focusing better as his head stopped spinning, “Yeah! Its Daring Do! I love her stories, I hoped you would too.”

A weak, slow smile started to spread on Twilight’s face, “I do, I am sorry for throwing you into the wall so hard…”

“It’s alright Miss Sparkle, I guess I can understand why you don’t like gryphons,” the little drake lowering his head with a bit of a sniffle, “I shouldn’t have been here, I just seemed to sleep a little better here for some reason…”

Twilight looked to the nurse, “Can… can you check him out here? Please? Can he stay for a little?”

Gerald looked surprised, his ears perking up as he lifted his head too quickly, before he fell over again. The nurse looked just as surprised, but nodded, “I could, if that is alright with you little one?”

Gerald held his head with a bit of a groan, “Yeah, I would like to, thank you Miss Sparkle.”

“Please, call me Twilight,” the lavender mare said, focusing, and reaching her magic to gently scoop up the small gryphon, “I don’t not like gryphons, you just… startled me, I’m sorry that I freaked out.”

Gerald let out a little squeak as he was picked up with magic, flapping his wings a bit unsteadily as he flew without flying, but once he was on the bed he settled down, “I think I understand Miss… Twilight.”

Twilight smiled, and started trying to rise herself, sit up more, but her hooves kept slipping out from underneath her, and she fell back to a lay with a grunt finally, panting from the exertion.

The two orderlies took their leave as things seemed calm, while one of the nurses started taking a closer look at Gerald, making him stick out his tongue, and looking in his eyes, and checking his reflexes. Twilight giggled to herself as she watched, before looking to the nurse, “What… hospital am I in?”

“You are in the infirmary of the Canterlot Castle actually, Princess Celestia insisted that you were brought here, and got the best care, you have been sleeping for around a week,” the other nurse responded, moving to the lavender unicorn, and started checking her over in a fashion similar to how Gerald was being checked out.

Twilight cringed at learning she was in the castle; her ears flattening back as she looked away, “I… I guess my next stop is going to be the prisons, isn’t it?” she asked, fear and depression creeping into her voice.

The nurse frowned at her, “What in the world would make you think that? As far as I am aware, you are scheduled to start rehabilitation and physical therapy as soon as you are able to, which means later today, now that you are awake. You are lucky, you slept through the worst of the withdrawal symptoms of the Moon Sugar. That is why we had you strapped down, you almost thrashed yourself off of the bed in some of your fits.”

Twilight blinked, her ears lifting slowly, “But I… I hurt Fluttershy, and I stole money from my friends, and… I used Moon Sugar, shouldn’t I be sent to prison?”

The nurse shrugged and offered her a smile, “I don’t know about all of that, but you have been through enough I think. Anyways, you are looking like you are in good condition. Your muscles are severely atrophied, that is why you need physical therapy, your neck wound was healed by Princess Celestia, however your shoulder wounds have had to heal on their own, they are coming along well, but they look like they are going to leave some bad scars.”

Twilight frowned, and looked over to the bandages layered on her shoulder and down her side, “i… guess if that is the worst I come out with…” she shuddered a bit.

The nurse gave Twilight a light pat on the other shoulder, “Your friends should be here in about an hour, they have visited every day, we can have you two brought breakfast in the meantime.”

Twilight looked startled, her eyes widening, “My… my friends? What friends? My only friend is Shadow...”

The nurse hmmed, “I am not sure I got all of their names, but there is a pink earth pony, an orange earth pony, a white unicorn, a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane, a yellow pegasus with a pink mane, on and Spike, I remember Spike from when he was here as a hatching,” the nurse smiled.

Twilight’s jaw dropped, “They… they are here?!” she started shaking all over again, a look of panic on her face as she started shaking her head, trying to rise again and struggle away, but she kept slipping weakly back down, “I can’t… they…”

“They care for you Miss Twilight,” Gerald said, looking up with some tears in his eyes, “I heard them a few times as they talked, they missed you… they… I wish I had friends like that, that loved me so much… you have to see them,” he looked over, away from the nurse, looking like he was about to cry.

Twilight had trailed off, and looked to the little gryphon, her voice catching in her throat as she let out a little squeak, but then used her magic to pull Gerald to her, placing him between her hooves and nuzzling him, starting to cry.

The nurse blinked, stepping back at the display, the two nurses giving concerned looks, but left them together, “Miss Sparkle, Gerald has a minor concussion, he should stay here till this evening for observation. If you are alright, we will let him stay here with you.”

Twilight looked up, sniffling and nodding, “t-Thank you.”

“Breakfast will be brought in around twenty minutes.”

Twilight nodded, and nuzzled her nose into Gerald’s fuzzy feathered head, but looked up as the nurse began to leave, “Nurse, what about my daughter? Where is she?”

“She will be by later, she is staying with Princess Cadance right now, she is doing and adjusting well from what I can tell.”

Twilight nodded, biting her lip, “And what about Shadow? Where is he?”

The nurse frowned at that one a bit, “He was wanted on charges of high treason and murder. From what I am aware however, Princess Celestia has placed him on special punishment until she decides what to do with him.”

Twilight nodded slowly, looking worried, “Shadow was my only friend…”

“He saved your life as well, from what I hear; it may earn him a pardon from the Princess.”

Twilight perked up a bit, and nodded, “Thank you,” lowering her head again to comfort herself with her new little friend.

***

Twilight was slowly brushing her hair, using a brush borrowed from a nurse, and a little hand mirror. Twilight winced as she caught a snag with the brush, shaking her head out and working it over a bit before getting through it. Her mane an tail were a mess really, they hadn’t been brushed right since… she couldn’t remember.

Gerald was curled up on a nearby chair, with his book underneath his paws, having fallen asleep. His head hurt, and he was rather sleepy. The nurses had told him he should stay awake, but he had finally fallen asleep after breakfast.

Suddenly the door burst inwards in a rush of air, and Twilight barely had a chance to look up as a cyan streak leaving a rainbow colored trail plowed into her and knocked her over as she let out a yelp, cringing. When Twilight opened up her eye to look around, she saw Rainbow Dash standing over her, and her eyes widened, with a mixture of surprise and fear.

“If you EVER do something like that again! I swear I am going to buck you so hard that Luna is gonna have to drag you back from the moon!” Rainbow Dash roared at Twilight, blowing her hair back and messing it up all over again.

“Dash I…” Twilight tried to begin when she suddenly found Rainbow Dash’s hooves and wings around her, squeezing her so tightly she let out a squeak as air rushed out of her lungs.

“I missed you so much! I wasn’t even there! Nothing has been right since you left, NOTHING!” Rainbow cried out as she hugged her friend ferociously.

“Ah think yah should let her go sugar, she might pop,” came Applejack’s voice.

Rainbow Dash blinked, and then looked down at Twilight before letting her go, hopping up as her wings fluttered, keeping her in the air, “I er… sorry Twilight. I just missed you.”

The rest of the ponies had filed in and stood ringing the bed while Rainbow Dash was busy assaulting Twilight. Twilight rolled to her belly, lifting her head to look around at all the ponies, and a dragon around her, her eyes slowly shifting between them, her lips moving for a minute before she finally managed to start saying something, “I… I’m so-“

“Ah don’t think we need or want to hear that Twilight,” Applejack said, cutting Twilight off. “We know you are sorry, ah am not sure sorry cuts it for runnin’ off an’ just abandoning all of yer friends like that. You had us worried sick for what, two years? We all thought you were dead!” She was trying very hard to be angry at Twilight, as were a number of the ponies.

Twilight wilted beneath the tone of Applejack’s voice, bringing her hooves up to cover her face as she started to sob, great wracking sobs starting to take her body.

Fluttershy was standing there, upset and nervous and very pregnant, but she looked on in horror as Twilight started to cry, and before she knew it, she was moving forwards, her wings fluttering a little as she half leaped up, wrapping her hooves around Twilight, wailing softly, “Oh Twilight! I missed you so much!” as she started to sob as well, burying her face into the side of Twilight’s neck, and hugging her. “I was always so worried about you, I knew you were out there! I just! I just!” she couldn’t finished as she broke down crying, finally managing again, “I’m just so glad you are back!”

Pinkie Pie’s waterworks were soon to follow as she threw herself halfway across Twilight’s back, “I never want to lose another friend again! It was the worst thing ever! We searched and we searched and we kept searching and looking for you! I turned over every pebble in Canterlot looking for you! I started turning over every pebble in Equestria looking for you!” her words tumbling over eachother in as big of a cascade as her tears. “I am just so happy you are back! I am going to throw the biggest party ever when you come back to Ponyville! No, not party, it’s going to be a parade! And a party! And a celebration! All at once! Now that we have our Twilight Sparkle back!”

“Come on dears, we simply must give Twilight some room! I am not sure she can breathe under there!” Rarity said, standing at the foot of the bed with Spike, but she too rounded the side of the bed, standing besides Fluttershy, and reaching out to give Twilight’s muzzle a nuzzle. “Twilight, I am so glad you are back, though I might help Dash if you ever do something so foolish again. Come on, give her some room Pinkie Pie… oh alright you can stay Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy gave Rarity a smile, her wings flapping as she lifted up, and settled herself on the bed besides Twilight. Applejack move forwards, not so good with all of this stuff, but tears were leaking down her cheeks as well, “We all missed you Twilight, things just haven’t been right without you,” as she reached out a hoof to rub Twilight’s shoulder

Twilight slowly lifted her head as Pinkie Pie got off her, and giving her a bit more room. She looked through her tears to all of her friends, her ears splayed, until her gaze finally came to rest on one who had been rather silent, her eyes settling on the purple dragon standing at the end of the bed, “Spike…” her voice came, thick with emotion.

Spike slowly looked up, tears running down his muzzle, “I’m so sorry Twilight… this is my fault, if I hadn’t-”

“No Spike, this isn’t your fault. I made the bad choices, I chose to run away… I should have known better than to get involved with Moon Sugar… I should have known I could turn to all of you when I was having problems, or getting so worked up… I made a mountain out of my problem, one that hurt all of you… and most of all nearly killed me… Please, don’t blame yourself, you were right to move in with Rarity, I wanted you to,” as Twilight spoke, her voice slowly gained some strength.

Spike sniffled and started to cry harder, half crawling up onto the bed to butt his head underneath Twilight’s chin like he was still a little hatchling, “I love you Twilight.”

“When are you coming home Twilight?” Pinkie asked, “I need to know when to plan the party!Festival!Parade!Celebration!”

“Do… I even have a home to go home to?” Twilight asked, looking around at her friends.

“Ofcourse you do darling,” Rarity said, using her telekinesis to pick up the brush, and starting to brush out Twilight’s mane with it for her, starting to style it with her magic some too, getting it back into a better looking shape, “Oh darn it, I need some scissors! I left them back in the room. Oh, yes, we made sure the library is still there for you, we wouldn’t let Celestia hire anyone else to take over there, we each took turns during our spare time, and taking days off to take care of the library, keep the books in order, check them in and out… your room is just as you left it, and all of your equipment in the basement too, though it might be a little dusty.”

Twilight looked flabberghasted, blinking through her tears at Rarity, “You… you all did all of that? For me?”

Spike nodded, “You betcha Twilight! It was our way of… keeping a vigil for you, we knew you would come back to us one day.”

Twilight sniffled heavily, wrapping her hooves around Spike and hugging him.

Rainbow Dash who had been rather quiet after her initial outburst, spoke up from behind Pinkie Pie, “Hey! Whos this pipsqueak!” nudging the sleeping Gerald on the chair.

Gerald yawned and let out a little squawk of protest as he was woken up, having somehow managing to sleep through all of the other ponies yelling. Rainbow hopped back, “It’s a gryphon! Wasn’t it a gryphon that attacked you?”

“Yeah Rainbow,” Twilight started, “That is-”

“What is a gryphon doing here then? Who are ya kid?” Rainbow asked, a little confrontationally as she eyed the gryphon up and down.

“That’s Gerald, he’s the son of the one who-“ Twilight winced as she was cut off by Rainbow Dash, realizing she shouldn’t have put it that way

“He is the SON of one who attacked you Twilight?! Why I oughta, I have a big problem to pick with your dad kiddo! I’m gonna kick his-“

“Dash! Stop it!” Twilight yelled, and a purple glow of magic wrapped around Gerald, picking him up and carrying him over as he squawked and flapped his wings, looking at Rainbow Dash with wide, terrified eyed. Twilight placed Gerald at her side, bringing her head to nuzzle and try to comfort him, “He is a nice young gryphon whose father tried to make him do some horrible things, I asked him to stay. I um… accidentally threw him into a wall when I woke up,” she said, looking sheepish.

Gerald let out a little shy chirp, peeking around at all the faces around, his wings giving a bit of a sleepy stretch, “Um… hello… everypony… I um…”

“Awww he is so precious!” Fluttershy spoke up, “A baby gryphon! Dashie be nice to him,” Fluttershy stuck her nose near the gryphon, “How are you feeling little one? Gerald was it? How is your head?”

Gerald blinked at Fluttershy and blushed a little in embarrassment, “I’m not a baby!” he said a little indignantly, “I’m five years old! And my head hurts still, I was a bit sleepy.”

Just then the door opened again, and Princess Cadance walked in, with Heart Song and Gleaming Shield, and a tiny little Glorious Dawn following her in.

Dawn gasped as she saw the crowd around her mother, and that she was actually awake! Letting out a scream of joy, Dawn scampered across the room, her wings buzzing like a bees so much that she went flying into the air and crashed into the side of the bed, just barely high enough that her front legs were over the edge, and she pulled herself up, “Mommy mommy mommy mommy!” pouncing over the purple dragon’s head to butt her head into Twilight’s chest, whinnying happily an hugging her.

Twilight looked over at the entrance, and smiled brightly, her ears lifting up as she saw her daughter, cooing happily to Dawn as she ended up so quickly between her hooves, nuzzling Dawn and hugging her to her chest, “Oh I’m so sorry to scare you like that sweetheart, have you met all my friends?”

Dawn nodded happily, “I did I did! I met Auntie Cadance who is superswell! And Heart Song and Shieldy are a lot of fun to play with! And I met your friends, Miss Fluttershy and Miss Applejack and Miss Rarity and Miss Pinkie Pie and Miss Applejack and Miss Rainbow Dash, and Miss Fluttershy, and Miss… er, Mister Spike! They are all a lot of fun! They kept me from getting too sad that you were sleeping so long. I’m so glad you are awake now though!”

Gerald looked over, smiling, but he remembered the last encounter with the little pegasus, and started to try to sneak away, though as soon as he started to pull away too much, he heard a screech, and cringed down to the bed, he just couldn’t catch a break!

Little Glorious Dawn was starting to back away from Twilight and Gerald, shaking, “Itsa, itsa Gryphon! What is! What is! It’s the same one! That! He was!” Dawn looked like she was about to panic and run away screaming when Twilight reached a hoof out to pull Dawn to her chest, hugging her.

“Shhh, it’s alright sweetheart, he’s not going to hurt you, calm down, please sweetheart?” Twilight asked, though her magic gently grabbed Gerald too when he tried to make a break for it, drawing a plaintive squeak from the gryphon, “You stay too Gerald, please?”

Gerald squawked in protest, his wings fluttering, but he gave up with a pout after a moment, his ears laid back, settling back on the bed and curling close to Twilight’s side, looking worried, and a bit upset.

“But mommy! He was going to do bad things! His daddy hurt you! I saw it! He! He almost!” the little pegasus’s lip quivered as tears started to go down her face.

Twilight shook her head, and nuzzled Dawn’s chin, “No, he wasn’t going to do bad things, it was all his father, Gerald is a nice gryphon, he won’t hurt you, I promise. Look at him, he is upset, he thinks you hate him, but he didn’t do anything to you, I think he would like to be your friend really, if you let him”

Dawn looked really uncertain, but she trusted her mother as only a child could, looking up at Twilight a bit, before moving to slowly peek around Twilight’s side, and giving Gerald a dubious look.

Gerald looked worriedly at Dawn, his own ears back, and he let out a soft little chirp. Dawn cringed back immediately, before she peeked out again, looking at the sad looking Gerald, “You… you really won’t hurt me or mommy?”

“What? No of course not! I like your mommy! She is nice! Really nice! And she has the nicest friends! I’m… I’m sorry about what my dad did… he was a bad gryphon, I never wanted to hurt anypony, that’s why I stayed here when Princess Celestia sent him away,” Gerald explained.

“He… he got sent away? And you stayed here? Why would you leave your daddy?” Dawn asked, a little confused.

“He… it’s a lot of reasons, he wanted me to be like him, and I never wanted to be, I just want to play with friends, but I never had any really…”

Dawn frowned, “You didn’t?” She seemed to be warming up to the gryphon while the others watched, slowly losing her fear as she crept around her mother’s chest, “Would you… like to be friends with me and Heart Song and Shieldy?”

Gerald’s ears perked up, and he nodded, “I do! If that’s alright with…” he glanced nervously to Twilight, and to the princess and her children.

Cadance’s children were playing a bit with themselves around the hooves of the other ponies, though Cadance smiled to Gerald, “It is alright with me little one, I think you could use more friends.”

Gerald brightened up, scrubbing a paw across his face for a moment as he hopped up, though he got up too fast, and wobbled, oofing as he fell over. Twilight clicked her tongue in concern, “Gerald bumped his head earlier… well… I threw him… accidentally,” she said sheepishly, “You still need to take things a bit easily Gerald, why don’t you read to us some Daring Do instead?” Off of the chair where Gerald had been sleeping earlier, a book floated off, opening to the front page as she brought it to lay down infront of the young gryphon.

Gerald looked up, and nodded, looking to the book, “if… that’s alright? I mean, I wouldn’t want to be boring everyone here or…” Gerald trailed off as all of the adult ponies started settling down and pulling up seats, voicing their collective agreement to let Gerald read. Gerald brightened up a bit more, and looked to the book, “It all started one dark and dreary night, with the rain thundering down over the jungles of the zebra homeland…”

Dawn perked up, she loved hearing those stories too, and slowly crept forwards, settling down a little timidly next to Gerald to peek over his shoulder, and look at the pictures while he read.

Twilight smiled, sniffling, turning to touch Fluttershy’s cheek on one side, and then Dawn’s back, and Gerald’s back on the other, her heart bursting with the love she felt in the room. She felt alive again; alive in a way she had never felt before, even when she was with her friends before Shining Armor died. All of the suffering she felt, it made the good times sharper, and she cherished what she had right then, it made everything worth it. Even as she just listened to Gerald reading, she couldn’t help but cry softly, not tears of sadness this time, but tears of joy to just be with her family.

There was only one pony missing from there.

Author's Notes

I keep never getting quite as far in the story with these chapters as i originally intended. I could have carried another section or two in this chapter, but it was the right length already, and it just -fits- better in my mind that everything that happens in this chapter happens in just that one room while Twilight lays in her bed. This story, this stage of the story at any rate, its taking much longer than i anticipated, i expected to be done writing this 2 days ago. I am not sure if the fact that it is continuing is due to my want to not see it end, or due to me becoming more prolific than what i had started, or just that there is much more that needs to be told in these sections than i can realize with just a cursory glance at its contents within my own mind.

Most times that i see writers start off with small chapters, and grow into much larger, and much better done chapters, there is a sizable gap between chapters, but i am working on plugging out a chapter a day. Right now they are getting out late because i don't start writing till late at night, so they are off by a day, i might get caught up at some point.

I hope this chapter and the last one have developed Gerald as a character pretty well, most of the other characters that are important are the Mane Six, and Twilight, and they have defined characteristics i can play off of, but for Gerald, i need to write him more because he is a character, like Shadow, that is being built just for this story.

I debated if this was the right time to use this title, but as i got to the last bit, i realized that this was when Twilight started to live again. This is the first chapter that has Twilight living and laughing and feeling after her brother's death, so i decided that this was indeed the right time.

I've been at 2 chapters and an epilogue left to write for 4 chapters now, /facepaw, I am not sure when i will get this story finished, hopefully sometime this week, but i have really enjoyed writing this.

And look, even in my notes i'm starting to get wordy, see!