Twilight just sat in the Hospital, her muzzle stained with tears. To the sides of her were the other two ponies she had come to the hospital, Lyra to her left and Bonbon to her right, however, Twilight gave them little heed, after all they were the reason she was here.
She perked up for a second as a door opened at the end of the door and a doctor came hurriedly out of the operating theater at the end. As the Doctor approached them Twilight got worried fearing the worst had happened, but instead he simply walked on past to go to the toilet.
Twilight was bored, as much as she worried for Artemis’ safety and cared for him she just couldn’t just sit there. She got up and headed towards a vending machine, retrieving some bits from her saddle bag she chose a coffee to keep her going.
While waiting for her drink to vend she sighed, why was she so upset, I mean to be upset that a new friend who had been entrusted in her care was natural, but to feel such a heartbreaking pain? could it be that she felt more than a friendly attraction to this strange creature?
No he was no strange creature, he was Artemis, a friend, and even if his appearance was a bit interesting in Ponyville, she was nothing if not understanding, besides his different anatomy would provide a great learning experience.
Twilight shook her head, Artemis needed her or at least would need her, so to worry about her relationship with him would only stop her lending her aid to the best of her ability.
She felt a hoof at her shoulder and looked round, it was Lyra.
“How you holding up?” The mint green mare asked.
Twilight almost lashed out at her, she just caused my friend to get bucked and injured, how does she think I feel, however she realized no one could've predicted what would of happened so bit her tongue.
“Could be better Lyra. I just hope Doctor House is able to help him.”
“Of course he will Twilight,” said Lyra holding Twilight's face up with her hoof looking into her eyes. “House is the best doctor in Equestria, if he can’t help no one can.”
“I guess, what’s he doing in Ponyville anyway? doesn’t he work in that large hospital in Canterlot?”
“I think so,” replied Lyra, “Not much I can say about that, I think I overheard a nurse say he was sent here by Celestia a few days ago.”
Hmm the best doctor in Equestria sent to Ponyville a few days ago, just before Artemis, seemed the Princess’s had their guiding hooves on him quite seriously.
“Well at least he’s in safe hooves then,” Twilight stuttered, her tears starting to be held back.
She picked up her coffee and headed back towards their seats, Lyra in tow.
As she approached her seat, she noticed Bonbon was now what appeared to be sleeping lightly, so she tread lightly and carefully took her seat so not to awake the sleeping pony.
No sooner than she had got comfortable and had brought her coffee to her lips did the doors at the end of the hall swing open again, loudly clattering against the walls and waking Bonbon.
Limping through them came doctor House.
He was smiling, Twilight could see, surely that was a good thing, though she had heard some interesting stories about this doctor from some friends back in Canterlot.
As the Doctor reached them he stopped, however before he could speak he was accosted with questions from all 3 mare before him.
He raised a hoof to silence them and allow him to speak.
“The human is doing fine, we managed to fix the broken bones in his legs, however they will still require at least a week to allow some natural healing before he can put any weight on them, and luckily his head injury was slight.” He paused for a moment to let the information `sink into the 3 ladies.
“In fact,” he continued, “He should be free to go home tomorrow afternoon.”
The moment he said that, the doctor felt three pairs of hooves hugging him and he fell to the ground.
“Oh thank you doctor”, the mare he knew as Twilight cried into his coat.
“I was so worried.”
“I understand, won’t say it was easy, human skeletal structure is rather interesting but we managed it.” Dr house looked very pleased with his skills.
“Can we see him doc?” Lyra asked tentatively
“Not yet miss,” he replied, “He’s out for the count right now, due to the morphine we administered, hopefully he will wake up tomorrow morning, but I need to have a few words with him first.”
He looked around at Twilight, Bonbon and Lyra, noticing their fatigue he said.
“Would probably best you three go and get a good nights sleep. You look like you need it, besides nothing you can do here.”
The three mares nodded in agreement, however they looked at each other wearily, none of them wanting to be alone this night.
Eventually Twilight spoke up realizing the other two felt the same to her.
“You two can stay in the Library for tonight, if you want?” she said to Lyra and Bonbon.
Too tired to reply and wanting to save their energy for the walk back they simply nodded.
Eventually they arrived at the library, where Twilight received another shock, asleep in the doorway were all 5 of her friends, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbowdash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy, all there shivering.
Twilight felt her heart melt at the sight, she didn’t know or care how they knew there was trouble but they were there for her. Carefully she trotted up towards the door, and the light patter of her hooves caused the four of them to stir.
“Twi, is that you?” came the sleepy southern drawl of Applejack.
“Yes,” was all Twilight could say, her words betraying her emotion.
“Come come darling lets get inside, I’m sure you need some rest and you can tell us more in the morning,” came the calming voice of Rarity
“Morning? Shesh, you drag me out of my cloud home, and make me sleep in the cold and want me to wait till morning? A future Wonderbolt needs her sleep ya’ know.” said Rainbow in her typical style.
“Oh rainbow don’t be such a grumpy wumpy pony,” said Pinkie pie, somehow already wide a wake, “We came here to see if we could help twilight and to find out why she went running to the hospital.”
“No need to argue guys, I can tell you now, but I think we should all get inside out of the cold first.” said Twilight.
With that Twilight opened the library and stumbled in, as she went to light a fire in the main room everypony else slowly made their way inside, stretching their legs and warming themselves up as they went.
“So whats up sugarcube? and where’s Artemis, don’t tell me you left him alone here.”
“Well I’m sure he can look after himself silly, he’s hardly a ‘ickle filly,” said Pinkie excitedly, using her front hooves to indicate a small size.
“Tha'ts not what ah mean Pinkie, Ah’m just saying that If he wakes up and needs some help, he may not know what to do, he’s not been in our world for long.”
“Fair enough AJ, but he seem’s smart enough to cope,” she said, a bit dreamily.
“No I didn’t leave him here alone guys,” Twilight said, interrupting before the argument could continue. “He’s kind of the reason I had to go to the hospital.”
At this statement, Fluttershy, who had until this point been silently hiding at the back of the group bolted up to Twilight.
“oh no, is everything ok?” she asked nervously, tears starting to form in his eyes.
“Yes,” Twilight said, hugging her Pegasus friend close, “At least he’s ok now.”
“um, what happened?”
“He had a small accident involving Lyra and Bonbon,” said Twilight indicating to the two ponies who had gone unnoticed by the 5 other ponies until now.
“When you say involving them, what exactly do you mean?” Rainbow asked menacingly as she floated in the air inches from Lyra and Bonbon.
“I mean that they made a mistake and it led to him needing some medical attention,” answered Twilight, trying to not let the situation get out of hand. Both Lyra and Bonbon looked gratefully at her.
Rainbow still wasn't fully convinced, so Twilight tugged on her tail to bring her back to the ground and said, “It was an accident Dash, no need to blame anyone.”
“I’m just glad Artemis is going to be ok,” Rainbow huffed, “I mean, i’m not being sentimental or anything, just it would be uncool for a friend, no matter how new, to be seriously injured.”
Twilight was going to say something, but could see an actual care behind Rainbow’s eyes.
“Well that's all I know for now, the doctor said we can visit him tomorrow, but he said we should get some sleep.”
“Yes I think that would probably be best, I’d say we should all stay with you for now and all go over and see Artemis together tomorrow.” said Rarity.
“Thanks.” said Twilight, the first smile all evening creeping across her face, no matter what happened she could always count on her friends to be there, well apart from that Discord incident. “But what about Sweetie bell and Applebloom?”
“Shucks, no need to worry about Applebloom sugar cube, Big mac can take care of her.”
“And I left a note for sweetie bell, she’s old enough to get herself some breakfast and head to school.”
“Well I guess it’s ok for everyone to stay here tonight, i’ll go fetch some pillows, and the fire can keep us warm.” Twilight was about to head up the stairs when she was stooped by Pinkie Pie.
“Nopie Lopie, you look so tired Twilight, you stay down here and i’ll get the pillows.”
Pinkie Pie exclaimed, rather loudly.
Twilight, too tired to Argue, sighed and slowly let her legs collapse beneath her. Her body instantly grateful for the rest. Soon pinkie returned with several pillows, however in addition to Twilight's back up white ones she carried with her several brightly colored ones.
“um, Pinkie where did you get those other pillows?” Twilight asked.
“You silly filly, from your cupboard of course.”
“No I mean the colored ones.” Twilight went on, her voice horse from a dry throat, caused by a mixture of crying and talking.
“So did I, Twilight. She-sh some ponies are dense.” Pinkie said, although in a cooky endearing way.
“But, but I don’t have any pillows like that. Wait is this one of those ‘I have pillows hidden all over Ponyville in case of a pillow emergency’ situations?”
“Huh? of course not, whose ever heard of a pillow emergency?” Pinkie looked really confused, “Seriously some ponies.” She exclaimed, before laying all the pillows out by the other ponies who had watched the exchange with some fascination.
With that Twilight, Bonbon and Lyra lay down to get some sleep, the quiet muttering of their friends humming softly in the background, the accompaniment providing comfort after such a long day.
Twilight was sat in the kitchen preparing a sumptuous three course meal, a luxury she never normally had indulged in, however she thought given what’s happened, all three of them; Spike, Artemis and herself deserved a treat.
She looked over her menu and her recipe books and smiled, she wasn’t much of a cook, but her mother had made sure to teach her a thing or two. For starters they had a think creamy Tomato soup, and for main course a set of thick and soft vegetable omelets, and for desert, a mouth watering fruit salad, containing Apples from Applejack of course, as well blackberries and cherries from berry punch and various fruits from other sales ponies down in the market.
Overall Twilight thought it was a fitting glad your ok meal.
As Twilight checked on the soup, making sure it was boiling evenly, she thought to the morning events, the silent patient waiting for Artemis to wake up, then the waiting for the doctor to finish talking to him.
It had been a surprisingly cheery event, everypony overjoyed to see Artemis well and awake, especially after an exchange with Lyra and Bonbon, who had both done things to apologies to him, Bonbon sneaking home to create some treats for him, and Lyra going off to Sweet Apple Acres to earn some coin for him, apparently while Twilight was asleep, Applejack had mentioned the work he would have been doing.
Artemis for his own part seemed rather pleased to see his friends, although he was clearly in some pain. Despite this he still easily forgave both Lyra and Bonbon, and not a further word was said.
While they had been waiting they had wandered what to do for the next week where Artemis had to be bound to a wheel chair. Twilight couldn’t really look after him all that time, she had a Library to run, but in the end they had agreed to each spend one day looking after him.
Tomorrow, the first day of the week in which he would need caring, would be spent in the presence of Rarity, Twilight had no idea what they would be doing, but she had heard something to do with gems.
She shook herself out of her stupor and quickly checked the main room, she noticed Artemis in his chair rather cheery, with his legs propped up on a pile of books, and Spike laughing while standing on his lap, apparently trying to tell Artemis a joke, which due to not being in Equestria very long flew right over his head. Artemis’ confusion thus adding fuel to Spike’s laughter.
Going back into the kitchen, she could see to her delight that the soup appeared to be, at least according to her recipe book, exhibiting the bubbling signs of boiling and thus according to the recipe, complete.
Twilight carefully ladled three large bowlfuls of the thick creamy soup and then using her magic levitated all three bowls as well as a large plate stacked with bread, both plain and buttered, into dinning room and set each bowl in its place.
While she went into a drawer to collect some cutlery for the soup, she called out “Dinners Served.” This was followed by a rather quick scramble and the sound of squeaking as Spike wheeled Artemis into the dinning room, then seeing the soup abandoned his friend in the doorway quickly making his way to his own space and sat there drooling.
“Spike!” Twilight yelled, “You can’t just leave Artemis in the doorway.”
“Its ok Twilight,” Artemis reassured her as he wheeled himself to his place at the table, “I’m not totally inept,” he chuckled as he said that, it was clearly a joke but the words stung Twilight.
“I know Artemis,” she said, “But your Spikes friend and he shouldn’t treat you like that. It’s just not right.” she stomped her hoof as she said the last part nearly sending her soup flying.
“Anyway...” said Artemis trying to change the subject, “This soup smells delicious, what flavor is it?” his mouth watering as he smelt the food before him.
“Tomato, and its home made,” Twilight beamed rather proud of herself, “And its only starters so don’t fill yourself up too much.”
“Only starters?” Spike stood there amazed, “But we never have more than a main course Twilight.”
“Today was kind of special Spike, besides we still haven’t had a welcome party for Artemis yet, so I thought maybe we could kind of welcome him and say glad you’re ok in one meal.”
Spike eyed her suspiciously for a second then stared at his food and shrugged, “Meh, Ok I guess, not going to complain about lots of food” he smiled and went into eating, noisily slurping.
Twilight snorted in disgust, soup was a course you should eat with elegance, not scoff down, and with that went into eating her own. As she brought her first spoonful of soup to her mouth she noticed however that Artemis was dipping some bread into the soup instead of eating it. That wasn't surprising, but most ponies waited till the soup got cold before using the bread to absorb what was left in the bowl. What was surprising was he was dipping buttered bread, mostly that was there to snack on while she cooked the omelets, still who was she to judge strange eating tastes.
Soon the soup was devoured and Twilight went to cook the omelets, which should take very little time according to her recipe book, especially since she had all the vegetables already diced up.
As the smell of cooking reached both Spike and Artemis’ noses they debated about what she could be cooking.
“I hope she’s doing hay fries.” said Spike “I love fried food.”
“I hope not,” said Artemis, “Humans can’t really eat hay.”
“hmm,” said Spike clearly thinking, “what exactly do humans eat?”
Artemis sat their nervous, like a rabbit in headlights, how exactly should he answer this, Lie even though it would probably turn out better or trust him with the truth?
Artemis quickly decided and began to answer, “Well... Humans are omnivores.”
“Omnivore?” a confused Spike asked the moment Twilight entered the room bearing three plates of stuffed omelets, “What does that mean?”
“An omnivores something that eats both eat and vegetables spike, why are you asking?” Twilight said as she floated the three plates in front of each of them.
“B-b-b-because, Artemis just said humans are omnivores” stuttered spike, clearly scared.
“You eat meat?” asked Twilight, projecting the omelet piece she had been eating across the room.
“Well back home in my world, kinda.” said Artemis, “I mean yes we do, but it’s completely natural.”
“You mean like p-p-pony meat?” Twilight continued this being her time to be scared. As she asked this she was slowly backing away from the table and more specifically Artemis while eying up the exits, wondering how quickly she could get away.
“No Twilight, Ive never eaten pony meat.” answered Artemis, clearly shocked but this reaction, “Like I said, in my world its completely natural to eat meat, but I understand things work differently here, and I doubt Ill eat meat again, after whats happened here, that’s if I get home.”
Twilight began to relax a little and felt ashamed, hearing one thing about Artemis and she suddenly started thinking he was a monster, she looked down sullenly, “I’m sorry Artemis, it’s just that's completely surprising. But can I ask why?”
“There's no need to apologies Twilight, your reaction is completely understandable, and of course its ok to ask. We've just always eaten meat, and I’ve never really questioned it. But I promise you, I’ll never eat meat in Equestria.”
“You pinkie promise?” both a still slightly scared Spike and Twilight said in unison.
“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Artemis responded, “Besides Twilight, the cooking here is too good to make me miss meat, yours included, and you’re much to beautiful to eat even if I wanted.”
Twilight blushed, did he just compliment my cooking and call me beautiful.
While Twilight was busy day dreaming, Artemis turned to Spike, “Sorry I scared you, but you did ask.”
“Don’t worry Artemis,” the dragon sighed, “I understand, and don’t worry we won’t tell anypony else, Right Twilight?”
“huh?” she answered snapping out of her daydream.
“I said,” began a now frustrated spike, his mood seemingly changing on a whim, “that we won’t tell anypony else about how Artemis ‘used’ to eat meat. Will we?”
“Um, no of course not,” she said cheerily, “we, um, wouldn’t want to cause a panic would we?”
“Anyway,” Artemis said after a grateful nod, trying again to change the subject, “How were your days?” he asked the librarian and her assistant.
“Tiring,” replied Twilight grateful in a change of conversation and a clearing of the air.
“Worrying and waiting takes it out of a pony.”
“It was ok,” replied Spike, “Apart from seeing you injured. You sure it was just an accident?”
“Maybe, maybe not,” answered Artemis, “but I’ve already forgiven them so doesn’t really matter.
“What exactly happened anyway?” the baby dragon asked innocently.
At this question, Artemis remembered the events of that night, the music, the fire, and the... kiss. He turned bright red.
“I’d rather not talk about it.”
Spike opened his mouth wanting to press further, but after seeing Artemis’ face and receiving a glare from Twilight decided against it and decided to fill his open mouth with omelet instead.
“mm-mm, Twilight this is the best omelet ever.”
Twilight smiled, “If you think that's good, just wait till you see dessert.”
With that, any talk of eating meat was quickly forgotten, although Twilight did make a mental note to send a quick letter off to the princesses’.
After not too long they finished their omelets in high spirits, and Twilight once again went of to busy herself in the kitchen leaving Artemis and Spike waiting and pondering on dessert in the dinning room.
This time instead of dishing it out in the kitchen, she hovered the large bowl of fruit, easily as big as Spike and 3 bowls and a ladle into the dinning room, and plonked it all down on the table.
As soon as the fruit salad had landed, it took Spike all he had within him not to dive in and gorge himself on the stuff, he may be a Dragon and his favorite foods be jewels, but fruit was almost as good.
Noticing Spikes obvious eagerness, Twilight thought it would be safer that she gave the ladle first to Artemis. Which he accepted and quickly collected a reasonable portion of fruit in his bowl. This was a wise move because within ten minutes, spike was lying on the floor of the dinning room, his stomach swollen and the bowl of fruit empty.
As Spike lay there, clutching his belly and groaning on about ‘future spike’, Artemis and Twilight couldn’t help but laugh at the young dragon, his eyes clearly bigger than his stomach on this occasion.
“Oh spike, sometimes I just don’t know what to do with you.” Twilight complained, although without any actual sense of annoyance. She had long ago got used to his crazy antics, besides, if he changed, he simply wouldn’t be spike.
Twilight tore herself from her assistant for a second to take stock of dinner, everything was eaten and thus, the only thing left to be done was clean up. This reminded her why she never normally did meals of more than main course and possibly dessert.
As Twilight looked at the various dishes around her, her eye twinged, normally when cleaning she had Spike to help, but that wouldn’t be any use here, and she could hardly as a good hostess expect Artemis to clean. Luckily she didn’t have to.
“Need any help cleaning up Twilight?” he asked.
“Well, um, I wouldn’t say no, if its no trouble, you are a guest after all.”
“I know Twilight, but you’ve been so kind to me so far, you housed me, cooked for me, helped me get to know people and helped me get a job. I can’t help but think I owe you something. Helping here is the least I can do, even if I’m not much help.”
“Oh Artemis, you don't owe me anything, it’s a pleasure to help friends. Though I will admit,” Twilight began to chuckle, “you’ve only been here 2 nights and already you’ve had an exciting time. Then again, it was the same for me when I first visited Ponyville.”
“Well I’ve had enough excitement for a while, I can deal with household chores for now.” he chuckled as well, their laughter alleviating any tension still left from that evening.
“Then I accept your offer,” Twilight said after the chuckling had subsided, “Just let me get ‘Ickle Spike here into bed first.”
With that Twilight took her leave, lifting the bloated and protesting dragon onto her back.
As she climbed the stairs she thought about the pleasant evening she had been having, it was honestly nice to have a new friend, one who was new and in a situation she had also been in, a situation she was best suited to help. She could see the possibility of several, if not dozens of friendship reports arising from him.
Twilight was soon upstairs and realized there was one really positive thing about Spike being so engorged. It meant that despite all his protests, he couldn’t do anything when he was put into bed, not that he would of done anything anyway, since he nodded straight off the moment his head hit the pillow. Poor Spike he must of had an emotional day.
After dealing with Spike, Twilight headed back downstairs, and what greeted her surprised her entirely. The dining room was completely clean, sure there was the odd piece of food, but all the dishes had been removed and the table wiped down, and there was Artemis filling the kitchen basin with hot soapy water ready to wash the dishes.
“Wow, even though your confined to a wheelchair you move fast.” Twilight said entering the kitchen.
The sudden entry and speech surprised Artemis, making him roll back in shock dropping the plates he was carrying, they duly smashed against the wooden floor.
Artemis sighed, turning round he apologized to Twilight, “Sorry about that,” he looked rather embarrassed, “guess i’m not fully used to the wheels, or being surrounded by ponies.”
Twilight smiled, “It’s ok, I guess you still need to get used to things here, must be quite a daunting experience being away from home.”
“More than you can know,” he confirmed, “Doesn’t help I got my legs busted so quickly. Still can’t complain too much, I have good food, somewhere to live and most importantly good friends.”
Twilight grinned, and surrounded the remains of the dishes and slowly made them repair themselves, “you know, we may not be as good as you think we are, you barely know us.”
Artemis looked at the dishes repairing themselves, “Well I guess you must be nice to have around, that's a nice spell” he smiled, “and I admit I don’t know you guys, but if you guys are willing to wait for hours in a hospital after barely two days, one in some of your cases, of knowing me, then you are good friends.”
Twilight smiles at the compliments, “Thanks Artemis, I hope we remain as good in your mind as you get to know us better.”
“Nah Twilight, I’m sure you guys will be fine, I’m worried about myself, I always make blunders to injure friendships,” then he smiled, “At least I don’t injure my friends.”
They laughed again, and Twilight placed her now repaired dishes into the sink, the warm soapy water attacking the remains of the meal encrusted on them.
Looking at the floors, both the kitchen’s and dinning room’s, the amount of muck made Twilight sigh.
“Is it ok if I leave you to the dishes and I tackle the floors?” Twilight asked Artemis.
“Sure Twilight,” replied Artemis, “not as if I’m much help with the floor, so I might as well do what I can.” He smiled sincerely.
Both went to their intending jobs and set about in abandon. Twilight finished her’s long before Artemis, her magic helping her out and his wheel chair making it hard to wash the dishes, when she had finished she just stood and watched him hard at work.
There was something clumsy about how he washed the dishes that suggested this wasn’t something he would regularly do, but the level of hard work he was putting into it, especially given his current condition made Twilight smile. She imagined when he was better he would be a real good addition around sweet apple acres.
Eventually Artemis finished his work, covered in bubbles after a bored Twilight decided to give the wheel chair a small bump, sending its passenger flying face first into the suds, which luckily was empty of anything sharp.
The situation wasn’t resolved until after much apologizing from a red faced Twilight and a massive soapy hug from Artemis.
When they had finally finished and moved into the main area of the library, they both noticed the time.
“I guess it’s getting late Twilight, I think I should be turning in if I want to get up in time tomorrow.” said Artemis.
Twilight nodded in agreement, “Same, tomorrow is the start of my Library shuffle.”
Noticing Artemis’ raised eyebrows and clear confusion she carried on to say,
“It’s when I tidy the library and check each books in the right place.”
Artemis looked around, “But it already appears each book is in the right place.” If there is one pony who would never lose her place with a book, either in it or on the shelves its you.” he said.
Twilight gave a smile and felt a warm tingling sensation within, she really liked it when Artemis complimented her, then again, she wasn’t used to compliments from colts, stallions or anyone male, besides Spike.
“Well it’s not just tidying, every library shuffle happens with a large influx of new stock. Wouldn’t get much business without new stock, and then that leads to the inevitable sale of old stock.”
Twilight frowned as she said that, she hated selling all old stock, the books feeling as part of her, but it had to be done to make room for new books. Besides, the princess let her keep any money made from the sales, which always helped her get some more luxuries for the place every few months.
It was now at the bottom of the stairs they hit another snag, how to get Artemis up to his room, not that this was a hard choice with Twilight’s magic. Thus they started upstairs, Twilight holding Artemis just in front of her in a violet sphere of magic.
It was hard work, the chair and Artemis combined weighed quite a bit, not that she would mention anything to him, it would’ve been rude to. Eventually however a panting Twilight had the sleepy Artemis next to his bed.
It was all Artemis could do to drag himself onto his bed from his chair and say good night, he was instantly asleep.
Twilight just lay there panting, for a minute she just lay there, resting her head on the edge of the bed and watching him sleep. She was glad he was ok, this strange creature had only been in Ponyville three days, but she was sure he would become a good friend.
Feeling the warmth of the room and the hand of sleep clawing at her she closed her eyes, meaning to only rest for a minute then head back upto her bed, she fell into a deep and content sleep.
