Under the Blue Moon

Chapter 6 – Blue Moon Reality

Celestia and Luna were running to the lobby of Canterlot Hospital when they got a call that Tidal was shot.  Celestia just got off the phone talking to Rarity before the call came in.  She was worried that the worst has happen to Tidal that she wasn’t sure what to tell Sky Blue what happened.  Luna was able to keep her composure and made sure that Celestia didn’t panic as they made their way inside.

Luna went up to the front desk and asked the lady, “Excuse us, but we’re looking for a relative of ours, Tidal Blue.”

Before the lady could respond, a voice nearby called their names.  They looked to see and nurse with white skin and pink hair walk up to them.

“Nurse Redheart!  Is Tidal-”

“It’s OK Celestia, Tidal’s going to be fine.  He just got out of surgery.”

“Do you know what happened?” asked Luna.

“Come with me and I’ll have Doc Top explain.”

They arrived in another part of the hospital where a doctor with brown skin and curly orange hair was talking to one of the nurses at her station on a patient.

“Doctor, this is Celestia and Luna, who I work for at CHS,” said Redheart.

“Yes.  I’m glad that both of you came,” responded Doc Top.  “She tells me that you’re looking over Tidal for your brother.”

“Yes,” replied Celestia.  “How is he?”

“Nothing serious.  Just some nerve damage and loss of blood, but he’ll be fine.  He just needs some rest, that’s all.”  Just then, his pager went off.  He looked at it and recognized the call sign on it.  “Forgive me, but it looks like I’m needed in surgery again.  Nurse Redheart can fill you in on anything else for now.  Speaking of which, have you heard from the detectives as of yet?”

“Not yet, but I’ll let you know if they come in,” replied Redheart.  Doc Top left the group to respond to the call.

“Detectives?  Did he do something wrong?” asked Luna.

“Let’s go someplace private and I can explain what I know.”

Nurse Redheart took Celestia and Luna to a prayer room where no one was around at the time.  They sat down on some chairs in the room.

“First off, Tidal’s lucky to be alive.  If it wasn’t for the officer’s actions, he might have lost a lot of blood.”

“How did he get shot?” asked Luna.

“He confronted a robber trying to get away at the park.”  Celestia and Luna were shocked.  Redheart continued.  “There was a struggle and both of them were shot.  Doc must have been called to help with the robber’s injuries, since they were listed as critical.”

“Why would he do something so stupid?” asked Luna.

***Few Hours Ago***

Two ambulances pulled up, each carrying a patient.  Doctors and nurses ran up to assist the medical workers unloading the patients; the group was lead by Doc Top and Nurse Redheart.

“What do we have, Nurse Redheart?”

“Two victims, Doc.  One is in his mid-thirties with a bullet wound to the chest, loss of blood and listed in critical condition.  The other is in his mid-teens with another bullet wound through the side of his chest, also loss of blood and is unresponsive at the moment.  No ID on both victims.”

As the staff was getting out both patients, they saw an officer applying pressure to the wound on the teenager.

“Officer?”

“Both victims struggled with a gun, setting it of twice, Doc.  I need security to help monitor the other guy just in case.”

“Any reason?” asked Doc Top.

“We believe he robbed a store earlier today.  No positive ID at the moment,” the officer replied.

“I’ll contact security about the matter.  Nurse Snowheart, get a team prepped for surgery.”

“Yes doctor.”  The yellow lady with the blue hair took her team and took the older patient to surgery.

As the others were about to check on the teenager, Nurse Redheart was able to ID the boy.

“Oh my…that’s Tidal Blue.”

“You know the boy?” asked Doc Top.

“Yes.  He’s Celestia and Luna’s nephew.  He just transferred to CHS over the winter break.”

“Then I take care of his injuries myself.  Nurse Tenderheart, take over for the officer.  Nurse Redheart, see to it that the officer is cleaned up and notify Tidal’s guardian.”

The blue lady with the green hair took over and applied pressure to Tidal’s wound on the side of his chest and went with Doc Top to the second surgery room.  Nurse Redheart escort the officer to a cleaning area to have the blood washed off of his hands and have his jacket bagged until it can be fully cleaned.  Nurse Redheart placed a call to Celestia’s home and explained what just happened.  After she hanged up, she went to check on the officer, who was finished cleaning up.

“Forgive me for asking, but you said that the older guy might have robbed a bank?” asked Redheart.

“Yes, but we’re not sure he’s the one we’re looking for.  We’re only guessing that because he was carrying a large bag of money, plus there was a gun next to him.  I couldn’t get the boy’s side because he just passed out when I arrived on the scene.  I swear this has been a rough day for everyone involved.”

“And to think I’ve seen everything at CHS,” Redheart responded.

“You also the school nurse over there?” the officer asked.

“School nurse and counselor.  I work here on the weekends to help out my fellow nurses.  Did you see the boy at the store that was robbed?”

“No,” the officer replied.  “First time I saw him was outside the park where the shooting took place.  Besides, there were two other teenagers that were at the store that was robbed.”

This raised Redheart’s curiosity.  “I know you can’t give out names, but do you know whom they looked like?” she asked.

“Well, I never did get their names at the time, but the owner knew who they were and helped called their parents.  There was a girl with cyan skin and rainbow-like hair; easy to remember.”

Redheart was shocked at what she just heard.  “That’s Rainbow Dash.  She’s one of our best athletes at CHS.  What about the other teenager?”

“Young boy, tan skin, brown hair, was wearing a green jacket,” the officer explained.

“Not sure I know the boy, but I do recall Tidal hanging out with Rainbow Dash and a few others, from what Celestia has told me.  Maybe there’s a connection to this and the robbery.”

“You might be right.  Can I borrow your phone?  I want to call the detectives that are on this case.  Maybe they can ID the robber and close this case on the spot.”

Nurse Redheart nodded and pointed to the phone at the desk.

“And I’ll double check on the names for the teenagers that were at the store,” the officer said.  “The owner said that the robber pointed the gun at the boy’s face.  A sight like that can do damage to a kid’s mental state.  I’m sure he could use a counselor to get him through this.”

***Current Time***

“So he saw Rainbow Dash at the same place that was robbed and decided to follow the robber?” asked Luna.

“Yep,” replied Redheart.  “And I looked it up online and found out that it was a used bookstore that was robbed hours ago.  They had a brief description of the subject they were looking for.  I think it’s the same guy who’s in surgery right now.  I wouldn’t expect Rainbow Dash to be in a bookstore like that unless she was helping out the boy that was with her.”

“I think the boy’s name is Rivet.  He’s in the homeroom class that I’ve been subbing this year.  He asked me if he can use stories from A. K. Yearling for the class assignments,” explained Luna.

“Rarity has told me that Rainbow Dash has become a big fan of Daring Do, so it would explain why they were together in the first place,” explained Celestia.  “But why would Tidal do something like this?”

Luna stood up and said, “Tia, what Tidal did was stupid and reckless.  He could have gotten himself killed for all that we know.”

Redheart stopped Luna and said, “Wait a minute.  Wasn’t Tidal bullied at his old school?”

And that’s when it all came together in Celestia’s mind.  “Dammit!!!  What was I thinking!  He must have thought that the robber was like another bully to him.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Luna.

“I’ve seen it in the news…about other teenagers and young adults causing trouble.  Crime on the rise, suicide rates from bullying victims.  You think he’s seen this stuff on TV?” asked Redheart.

“Maybe so,” responded Celestia.  “I knew he had it bad, but I never thought he would go this far.”

“Dammit Tia.  I swear I going to-”

“Stop it Luna!  Just getting mad at him isn’t going to solve our problems,” explained Celestia.

“I hate to say it, but she’s right,” explained Redheart.  “Listen, he’s still asleep, and it will be hours before he can come around.  I’ll stay here overnight and watch over him.  The two of you go back home and rest.  Let me worry about his problems for now.  I’ll let you know when he’s awake, OK?”

“Thanks, Nurse Redheart.”  Celestia got up and hugged Redheart.  “Please do me a favor and see to it that it’s kept on the low key, OK?  I don’t want the rest of the school catching on to his actions until we can figure out how we can help him.”

“If he’s doing well in the morning, I can see if Doc can release him to your care by then,” said Redheart.

Celestia and Luna left the room and the hospital and made their way home.  Nurse Redheart also left the room and made her way to the room where Tidal was sleeping.

The sun started to shine through the hospital window Sunday morning, enough to wake Tidal from his sleep.  As he tried to get up, he felt a sharp pain on the lower right side of his chest.

“You might want to take it easy for a while, since they just patched you up yesterday.”

Tidal looked over to his side to see a nurse with pink hair sitting next to him.

“At least you’re now awake.  Principal Celestia will be glad to hear that.”

“Was she here?” asked Tidal.

“Yesterday.  But I told her to go home and rest.  By the way, I’m Nurse Redheart.”

Tidal looked around and noticed that he was in a hospital and not at school.  “So Aunt Tia decided to have you stay and watch over me?”

“Actually, I work here on the weekends.  Otherwise, I’m working at the school,” replied Redheart.

“So…what happened?” asked Tidal.

“You got shot.”

“Really?” Tidal sarcastically replied.

“You and the robber that you confronted yesterday,” Redheart answered.  “What I would like to know is why?”

Tidal looked away, not wanting to answer the question.

“Would it have to do with what happened to Rainbow Dash and Rivet at a used bookstore?”

Nurse Redheart was able to push the issue, causing Tidal to respond.

“How did you know?”

“I was able to get the info from the officer who saved your life.  The teenagers that he described were easy for me to point out, with Celestia and Luna’s help.  But I still don’t understand why you risked your life to do this.”

“If he made his way into the park, I would have lost him at that point,” replied Tidal.

“So you just went up to him and start a fight?” asked Redheart.

“More like causing a scene,” replied Tidal.  “Besides, you said that he was shot.  Bully got what he deserve.”

“So he was a bully, right?  What makes you say that?  Is it because he pulled a gun in front of Rivet?  The owner told the officer that it happened.”

“That, and that he pulled Rainbow Dash’s hair and knocked them down,” answered Tidal.  “I hope the bullet that hit him pierced his heart.  He doesn’t need to bully others like her did them.”

“So the end justifies the means, right?”

“Yep.”

“Is that how you think of every bully?”

“Yep.”

“You be careful about that in the future.  Otherwise, you may not get another chance to live,” explained Redheart.  “Now if you will excuse me, but I need to take care of a few things.”

Nurse Redheart left the room and went to see Doc Top to look into him and see if he was cleared to leave.  After several hours, Doc was able to clear Tidal and requested Nurse Redheart to look into him each day after school for the next two weeks.  Redheart was able to call Celestia and explain what she just now learned and decided to take him home personally, since her extended shift just came to an end.